Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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717. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if a local authority tenant hoping to purchase his or her home under the tenant incremental purchase scheme 2016 does not qualify to purchase under the ten-year housing supports criterion but qualifies under financial requirements, if time spent in receipt of rent supplement, as this is also a housing needs support, can be considered for the person to qualify under this new criterion; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16493/23]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The Tenant (Incremental) Purchase Scheme 2016 provides for the purchase by eligible tenants, or joint tenants, of local authority homes available for sale under the scheme.

Applicants must meet certain criteria to qualify under the scheme, including a minimum 10 years in receipt of social housing supports. Such supports include social dwellings provided local authorities as well as assistance provided through the Rental Accommodation Scheme and Housing Assistance Payment. The requirement seeks to encourage long-term tenants to stay in their homes and support the development of socially sustainable communities.

Rent supplement is not a social housing support. It is a short-term income support for people living in private rented accommodation who cannot provide for the cost of their accommodation from their own resources. Accordingly, time spent in receipt of rent supplement does not count towards the time spent in receipt of social housing and is not reckonable for the purposes of meeting the 10-year criterion.

Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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718. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the steps he is taking to increase the housing assistance payment in response to rising rental costs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16514/23]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Maximum rent limits for the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) were set for each housing authority area in 2016, in conjunction with the Department of Social Protection (DSP). In reviewing rent limits, my Department worked closely with DSP and monitored data gathered from the Residential Tenancies Board and the HAP Shared Services Centre. In prescribing these limits, household size and prevailing rents in the relevant areas are taken into consideration. The HAP rent limits were increased significantly in July 2016, in the order of 60% in some cases. Maximum rent limits for the HAP scheme are set out for each housing authority area by the Housing Assistance Payment (Amendment) Regulations 2017.

Under Housing for All, my Department was tasked with undertaking an analytical exercise to examine whether an increase in the level of discretion available to local authorities under HAP is required. The Housing Agency undertook to carry out this analytical exercise on behalf of my Department to better understand what level of discretion should be made available to local authorities under HAP to maintain adequate levels of support.

Since 11 July 2022 each local authority has statutory discretion to agree to a HAP payment up to 35% above the prescribed maximum rent limit and for new tenancies to extend the couple’s rate to single persons households. It should be noted that it is a matter for the local authority to determine if the application of the discretion is warranted on a case by case basis and also the level of additional discretion applied in each case.

A separate review of the discretion available to Homeless HAP tenancies in Dublin, which is up to 50% above the prescribed maximum rent limits, is currently being undertaken by my Department, in conjunction with The Housing Agency.

My Department continues to keep the operation of the HAP scheme under review and closely monitors the level of discretion being used by local authorities, taking into account other sources of data, including Residential Tenancies Board rent data published on a quarterly basis.

I am committed to decreasing our reliance on the HAP scheme and central to that is significantly scaling up our social housing supply. Housing for All is the Government’s plan to increase the supply of new homes to an average of 33,000 per year over the next decade. This includes the delivery of 90,000 social homes, 36,000 affordable purchase homes and 18,000 cost rental homes. As new build supply of social and affordable housing ramps up, there will be reducing reliance on the HAP scheme.