Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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992. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the status of the roll out of choice based letting for Galway city; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24115/19]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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As part of the broader social reform policy framework, the Social Housing Allocation (Amendment) Regulations 2016 were made on 30 September 2016, and required all local authorities, if they had not already done so, to provide for Choice Based Letting (CBL) as a method of allocation in their allocation schemes by 31 December 2016. Where a local authority, having included a provision for CBL in its allocation scheme, decides to operate a CBL scheme, it must implement it in accordance with Regulations 6 – 11 of the 2011 Regulations.  Decisions on which properties are to be included under a CBL scheme is a matter for individual local authorities.

My Department monitors the roll-out of CBL across all local authorities and conducted the most recent survey of implementation in Quarter 4 of 2018 at which time Galway City Council indicated they were not operating a CBL model. However, my Department has raised the matter with Galway City Council, who have confirmed that it is envisaged that a CBL scheme will be operational by year end. My Department will continue to liaise with all local authorities, including Galway City Council, with a view to ensuring that CBL is implemented, as widely as possible, across the country.