Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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737. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of households currently in receipt of the housing assistance payment support in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19382/21]

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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738. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the Exchequer expenditure on the housing assistance payment scheme in each of the years 2016 to 2020 inclusive by county in tabular form; the expected outlay for HAP per county in 2021; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19383/21]

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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761. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of households in receipt of the housing assistance payment that have applied for a discretionary top up to their HAP payment; the number that were approved; the number of these applicants that received the full entitlement of the 20% top-up by county in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19679/21]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 737, 738 and 761 together.

The Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) is a flexible and immediate housing support that is available to all eligible households throughout the State. At end Q4 2020 there were nearly 60,000 households in receipt of HAP and over 33,520 separate landlords and agents providing accommodation to households supported by the scheme.

In respect of the provision of HAP funding, Limerick City and County Council provides 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.

Budget 2021 increased the Exchequer funding for the HAP scheme to €558 million. This will allow for the continued support of existing HAP households and also enable an additional 15,000 households to be supported by HAP in 2021.

Data in relation to funding provided by the State for HAP tenancies in 2019 and 2020, broken down by local authority area, can be found on my Department's website at this link:

This funding represents the portion paid by my Department after receipt of the differential rent which is paid by the tenant to the local authority. It does not include administration costs related to the Scheme.

Details on the Total Exchequer funding for HAP from 2016 to 2020 are set out in the table below:

The table below shows the number of households at the end of Q4 2020, broken down by local authority, who are in receipt of Housing Assistance Payment support.

*The DRHE is operating the HAP Homeless Place Finder Service on behalf of the four Dublin local authorities.

Each local authority has statutory discretion to agree to a HAP payment up to 20% above the prescribed maximum rent limit to secure appropriate accommodation for a household that requires it, or up to 50% in the case of homeless households in the Dublin region. It is a matter for the local authority to determine, on a case by case basis, whether, and to what extent, the application of the flexibility is warranted. My Department does not hold data on the number of households in receipt of the housing assistance payment that have applied for a discretionary top up to their HAP payment.

The table below shows the number of households at the end of Q4 2020, broken down by local authority, who are in receipt of discretion, and sets out the average level of discretion in each area. This table excludes homeless households in Dublin who were eligible to receive up to 50% discretion.