Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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131. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the amount spent on the housing assistance payment in Dublin 9 and 11 in each of the years 2019 to 2020 and to date in 2021; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38373/21]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) is a flexible and immediate housing support that is available to all eligible households throughout the State. At end Q1 2021 there were nearly 61,300 households in receipt of HAP and over 33,900 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.

HAP Exchequer funding recoups the HAP SSC the costs associated with the making of HAP payments, including Homeless HAP; the administration cost of local authorities in their operation of the scheme; and the costs associated with providing public access to general information on the HAP scheme. Actual outturn on HAP in 2020 was €464.6 million. HAP spend to end Q1 2021 was €127.4 million.

My Department does not hold data on HAP tenancies by post code, but rather collects and publishes data by local authority area.

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

www.gov.ie/en/collection/6060e-overall-social-housing-provision/#housing-assistance-payment

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.

The overall cost of supporting the HAP Scheme to the Exchequer for the period 2014-2020 is outlined in the table below: