John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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329. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the extent to which he is aware of persons who apply under homeless housing assistance payment, HAP, in the jurisdiction of Fingal County Council being transferred to the housing list of another local authority area Dublin City Council; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53455/22]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The day-to-day operation of the social housing system, including the oversight and practical management of the lists of qualified households awaiting accommodation, is a matter solely for each local authority.

Section 20 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 and the Social Housing Assessment Regulations 2011, as amended, set down a standard procedure for assessing applicants for social housing support. Under this procedure, a household may apply for support to one housing authority only, which may be the authority for the area in which the household normally resides or with which it has a local connection, or the authority that agrees, at its discretion, to assess the household for support. A household, meeting either the residence or local connection condition, may specify up to three areas of choice for receipt of support in the areas of all housing authorities in the county and city concerned and, if qualified, will be entered on the housing waiting list of each of those housing authorities.

Under Housing Assistance Payment (HAP), households at risk of homelessness may be eligible for additional supports. To qualify for specific additional supports available to homeless households, a household must have been determined by the relevant local authority to be homeless within the meaning of section 2 of the Housing Act 1988. The operation of local homeless services is a matter for each local authority.

Consistent with the provisions in the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2014, the HAP scheme is considered to be a social housing support and consequently households in receipt of a payment under the HAP scheme are not eligible to remain on the main housing waiting list. However, acknowledging that some households on the waiting list, who avail of HAP, have expectations that they would receive a more traditional form of social housing support, Ministerial directions have issued to ensure that, should they so choose, HAP recipients can avail of a move to other forms of social housing support through a transfer list.

Local authorities are also directed that HAP recipients who apply to go on the transfer list should get full credit for the time they spent on the waiting list and be placed on the transfer list with no less favourable terms than if they had remained on the waiting list.

The practical operation of transfer lists is a matter for each local authority to manage, on the basis of their own scheme of letting priorities. The making of such schemes is a reserved function of the local authority and as such is a matter for the elected members.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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330. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the analysis that led to setting the threshold for cost rental at €53,000 net income, given that this is far below income levels which would give the capacity to families to purchase in Dublin even with the shared equity schemes; and if he will allow persons with income somewhat in excess of this threshold to apply for cost rental now or in the foreseeable future. [53478/22]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The policy intent of developing a new Cost Rental sector in Ireland is to assist those on moderate incomes who are facing affordability pressures in the private rental market and may not qualify for social housing supports. The main eligibility condition for leasing a Cost Rental dwelling is that a household’s annual income, less income tax, PRSI, USC and superannuation contributions, must not be greater than €53,000, as per the Cost Rental Letting and Eligibility Regulations:

irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2021/si/755/made/en/print

Cost rents are set to cover the costs of providing, financing, managing and maintaining each home. In order to reduce these costs, thereby making the rent lower and more affordable for the tenant, upfront State capital subsidies are being deployed including the Cost Rental Equity Loan (CREL) scheme for Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) and the Affordable Housing Fund (AHF) for Local Authorities. As such, income limits are important in targeting these limited State resources at those who fall within the moderate income cohort and are considered most in need of support.

This net income limit of €53,000 for Cost Rental is equivalent to gross incomes in the region of €80,000 per year for single and dual-income households. This income eligibility limit was informed by considering affordability and the cost rents achievable under CREL and with data on median income levels. The parameters for Cost Rental eligibility will be kept under review to ensure the scheme best targets the support provided.

Households who are eligible for Cost Rental or who may be in receipt of household incomes in excess of the scheme’s eligibility limit may also eligible for the range of schemes that the Government has introduced under its Housing for All strategy to support those who wish to purchase their own home. This includes the First Home scheme and the Local Authority Affordable Purchase scheme. These are in addition to existing supports through the Local Authority Home Loan and the Help to Buy scheme, which are all designed to assist first-time buyers to obtain the mortgage finance necessary to purchase their own home.

The First Home scheme has begun to provide affordably constrained first-time buyers with assistance to bridge the gap between the level of funding they can access through a mortgage and the price of a new home. Homes under the scheme must be made available at prices below €450,000 in the Dublin region. It is worth noting that South Dublin and Fingal represent the significant majority of new First Time Buyer Homes in Dublin and the median price of these homes in these local authority areas is € 395,000 and € 420,000 respectively. Given both the 20% of equity support available under First Home and the recent announcement by the Central Bank amending the macro prudential rules to allow Loan to Value ratios of 4:1 times annual income from January 1st 2023, there would be new homes available through the scheme for those on household incomes of below €80,000 in Dublin.

Separately, the first properties are also being sold under the Local Authority affordable purchase scheme, funded by my Department's Affordable Housing Fund and the scheme will ramp up delivery from this point forward. For example, the first 16 homes at Kilcarbery Grange, a South Dublin County Council development, are being sold to eligible purchasers at between €245,600 and €285,300, well below the median first-time buyer price of €385,000 for a home in the area. Further homes are being delivered in Q4 2022 by Fingal County Council at Dun Emer in Lusk, where 2-bed apartments were made available for €166,000, and 3-bed dwellings available for between €206,000 and €258,000.