Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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397. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if his Department’s policy to remove a social housing applicant from choice-based letting for a year following a first refusal of a housing offer and to remove the applicant from the housing waiting list for a year following a second refusal of a housing offer, or if this is up to the discretion of individual local authorities; if he will point to the legislative basis for such a policy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22499/23]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Choice based letting (CBL) is a mechanism to facilitate the efficient allocation of social dwellings by local authorities and help reduce delays in reletting of properties by local authorities. CBL is provided for in the Social Housing Allocation Regulations 2011, made under section 22 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009.

As per Regulation 10, a household that refuses a “reasonable” offer for a bid for a dwelling under CBL may not apply for another tenancy under the CBL system for one year from the date of refusal.

However, such a refusal does not constitute a refusal for the purposes of offers made under the non-CBL system. Refusals of non-CBL offers is covered by Regulation 12, which provides that a household that refuses two reasonable offers of such tenancies in any twelve-month period will receive no further offers for one year from the date of the second refusal. The latter period of one year is not reckonable when determining the household’s relative priority for another social housing tenancy.

Local authorities are obliged to apply the Regulations fully. Given the benefits offered by CBL, including fewer refusals and greater choice for qualified households, my Department continues to liaise with the local authorities to support as wide a roll-out of CBL as possible across the country.