Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Sinn Fein)
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664. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if consideration has been given to the challenges faced by some elderly and disabled persons in accessing the choice-based letting model of provision of social housing; if his attention has been drawn to persons struggling to access these platforms due to the fact they are technology based and digitised; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39844/21]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Choice Based Letting (CBL) is a method whereby available social housing stock is let by being openly advertised by local authorities to persons on the social housing waiting list. This allows qualified applicants to 'register an interest' in available homes.

Applicants can act on their own initiative to respond to adverts and express an interest in dwellings that they would like to live in, rather than waiting for an authority to offer them a dwelling. This approach offers more choice and involvement for applicant households in selecting a new home, thereby reducing the likelihood of a refusal, and helping to build sustainable tenancies and stable communities.

The Social Housing Allocation (Amendment) Regulations 2016 required all local authorities, if they had not already done so, to provide for CBL as a method of allocation for social housing in their allocation schemes by the end of 2016. The way in which CBL is implemented, including decisions on which properties are to be offered through it, is a matter for the individual authority concerned. However, it must be done in accordance with the relevant regulations and their own scheme of priority.

Given the clear benefits offered by CBL, my Department continues to liaise with the local authorities to ensure that it is implemented as widely as possible across the country and has undertaken a number of surveys to determine its uptake and impact. Data garnered through these surveys has shown that over half of all local authorities are operating a CBL system while others are in the process of running pilot schemes with a view to wider roll out in their respective areas. Of those authorities that are operating CBL the expressed view is that it is having a positive effect on how they allocate houses. The data also shows that where CBL is in operation the rate of refusals has dropped.

Furthermore, the Programme for Government commits to developing a website to allow for CBL on a nationwide basis and my Department is working with the Local Government Management Agency and the County and City Managers Association to progress this. Issues such as those outlined by the Deputy will be considered as part of that process. In this regard, it should also be noted that each local authority has a technical advisor for older person’s housing who can be contacted to advise/support an older person in accessing social housing.