Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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517. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the total cost of social leasing, rent supplement, RAS and HAP payments, respectively, in the Cork County Council area in each of the years 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively. [20671/20]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The total expenditure for Cork County Council under the Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS) and the Social Housing Current Expenditure Programme (SHCEP) from 2018 to date in 2020 is as follows:

SHCEP supports the delivery of social housing by providing financial support to local authorities for the leasing of houses and apartments. Dwellings under the scheme come from a number of different sources including private owners, Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs), Part V and the NAMA Special Purpose Vehicle (NARPS).

In relation to the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP), Limerick City and County Council provide a highly effective HAP transactional shared service on behalf of all local authorities. This HAP Shared Services Centre (SSC) manages all HAP related rental transactions for the tenant, local authority and landlord.

Accordingly, my Department does not recoup individual local authorities in respect of HAP rental payments in their administrative areas but rather recoups all landlord costs via the HAP SSC. However, the following table details the number of active tenancies and average rent paid to landlords at the end 2018 and 2019 for County Cork.

Responsibility for Rent Supplement falls within the remit of my colleague, the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection.