Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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1418. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the steps he is taking to reduce the amount of underoccupancy in local authority stock, such as offering incentives, a furniture or redecoration grant to tenants to right-size; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13725/19]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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The allocation of local authority dwellings and thereafter the management of tenancies is a matter for individual local authorities. I understand that the majority of local authorities have arrangements in place to enable tenants to move to smaller dwellings where they have expressed a wish to do so, where the local authority has housing stock that meets the needs of the tenant.

My Department and the Department of Health have been working together since 2017 to develop policy options for supported housing/housing with care so that older people will have options to choose accommodation that is suited to their needs. The Actions are set out in a joint Policy Statement, Housing Options for Our Ageing Population, including a commitment to put in place methods and mechanisms to incentivise older people in public and private housing to rightsize to smaller dwellings, if they choose to do so. The Policy Statement, which was published on 27 February 2019, is available on my Department's website at the following link:

www.housing.gov.ie/sites/default/files/publications/files/housing_options_for_an_ageingpopulation_0.pdf.