Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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442. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will implement a review of how the HMD form is working across councils to ascertain whether it places too heavy a load on disabled and ill people (the very people it is supposed to help); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42962/24]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Applications for social housing support are assessed by the relevant local authority, in accordance with the eligibility and need criteria set down in section 20 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 and the associated Social Housing Assessment Regulations 2011, as amended. The allocation of local authority dwellings, including the prioritisation of certain households, is a matter for the local authority concerned, in accordance with their allocation schemes made under section 22 of this Act and associated Regulations.

A revised Social Housing Support Application Form was introduced with effect from 19 April 2021. The form includes an additional form which an applicant who wants to apply for assessment for priority support based on medical need or disability must complete (HMD-Form 1). The form is for anyone applying for social housing or a social housing transfer due to a disability or medical grounds. It provides for a variety and wider range of healthcare professionals to complete the form than previous iterations. This can include professionals involved with the person with a disability or medical condition, such as a consultant, general practitioner, mental health nurse, public health nurse, occupational therapist or social worker.

The purpose of the HMD1 form is to obtain sufficient information to allow the local authority to assess the nature of the applicant’s circumstances and determine the most suitable housing solution for them. Noting that the requirement to obtain a medical consultant’s letter was onerous, the Housing Agency established a Task Group who reviewed the application process and developed a new form. Use of the new form was piloted in four local authorities (Fingal, Kilkenny, Sligo and Leitrim) for several months in 2019 into 2020. Following the pilot, the Task Group recommended to my Department that the most appropriate approach would be to require two Healthcare Professionals to provide a professional opinion on the needs of the applicant. I subsequently brought forward the Social Housing Assessment (Amendment) Regulations 2021 (S.I. No. 116 of 2021) which adopted the HMD1 form.

Where an applicant household cannot provide the necessary documentation, the local authority has discretion to request alternate documentation in order to satisfy itself in relation to any or all of the requirements.