Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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108. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if his attention has been drawn to the stress HAP tenants and prospective HAP tenants are under who are forced to take cases to the Workplace Relations Commission; if consideration has been given to providing assistance to HAP tenants; if his attention has further been drawn to the fact that many cannot take cases due to the fact they do not have contact details for the landlord or prospective landlord; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50253/21]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme plays a vital role in housing eligible families and individuals. At the end of Q2 2021, 94,500 HAP tenancies had been set-up since the scheme commenced, of which there were more than 62,000 households actively in receipt of HAP support and over 33,000 separate landlords and agents providing accommodation to households supported by the scheme.

A landlord or an agent acting on behalf of a landlord is not legally obliged to enter into a tenancy agreement specifically with a HAP recipient. However, on 1 January 2016, the Equality (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2015 introduced “housing assistance” as a new discriminatory ground. This means that discrimination in the provision of accommodation or related service and amenities against people in receipt of rent supplement, HAP or other social welfare payments is prohibited. Further information is available at www.ihrec.ie/your-rights/housing/housing-assistance-payment/.

If a person feels that they have been discriminated against by a landlord or their agent, they can make a complaint under the Equal Status Acts to the Workplace Relations Commission; further information is available on the Commission's website, www.workplacerelations.ie/en/.

Threshold, the housing charity, provides a comprehensive advice and advocacy service to families and individuals who are renting their homes. Further information is available at www.threshold.ie/advice/seeking-private-rented-accommodation/can-a-landlord-refuse-to-rent-to-me/.

The HAP scheme continues to be an effective and secure forms of social housing support and remains a part of the suite of social housing options currently available across the country.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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109. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will make provision in which persons allocated voluntary housing could apply for a transfer to the local authority housing list or on to the HAP scheme if their voluntary housing does not suit their current needs; the reason such persons are confined at present to applying for a transfer to the voluntary housing body they are housed with; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50259/21]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The oversight and management of housing waiting lists, including the allocation and transfer of tenancies, is a matter for the relevant housing authority in accordance with the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009, and associated regulations.

Where a voluntary housing/approved housing body (AHB) tenant was drawn from a local authority social housing waiting list in the first instance, there is no particular legislative provision that prevents that tenant from applying to go onto a local authority transfer list.

Section 22 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 requires all housing authorities, as a reserved function, to make an allocation scheme determining the order of priority to be accorded in the allocation of dwellings to households qualified for social housing support and to households approved for a transfer, the allocation of which would, in the opinion of the authority, meet the accommodation needs and requirements of the households. Under section 22, an allocation scheme shall apply to dwellings owned or under the control of a local authority, as well as dwellings provided by AHBs with Exchequer funding. It is a matter for the housing authority to provide in its allocation scheme as to whether AHB tenants may apply to go onto their local authority transfer list.

The Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme is underpinned by the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2014. Under section 45 of the 2014 Act which sets out conditions for ineligibility for HAP, a household in receipt of a form of social housing support other than housing assistance shall not be eligible for such assistance, except where a housing authority is satisfied that the household is unable to continue to live in the dwelling concerned due to exceptional circumstances, including displacement by fire, flood or any other emergency, that was not caused by an act, or a failure to act, by the household or a household member.