Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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255. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government when social housing qualification thresholds will be reviewed, considering the current threshold in Tipperary is, €30,000 for a single person; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22280/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Housing for All includes a commitment to review income eligibility for social housing. From this review, completed in November 2021, it was recommended moving five local authorities from Band 3 to Band 2, ensuring the income eligibility thresholds better reflect housing costs in those counties. Government also agreed to increase the baseline income thresholds by €5,000 for all local authorities with effect from 1 January 2023. The thresholds thus increased to €40,000, €35,000 and €30,000 for bands 1, 2 and 3 respectively.

The review further recommended the commissioning of research to develop options for a revised or new social housing income eligibility model. My Department received this detailed research, commissioned by the Housing Agency. The scope of the research included examining the existing income limits in the context of current market and population conditions and the suitability or otherwise of the current framework having regard to the significantly changed landscape since the standardised income limits were introduced.

My Department is now undertaking a detailed examination of the report, in order to develop a new social housing income eligibility model in line with the Housing for All Action Plan update. This detailed examination will include consultation with stakeholders and will look at, inter alia, how the social housing income limits system interacts with other housing supports and ensure that they continue to target households correctly.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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256. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if a person, who has obtained a debt relief notice which includes rent arrears, can be penalised by a local authority by putting a social housing transfer on hold pending payment of arrears on their rent account; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22298/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Requests for housing transfers are considered and determined solely by the relevant local authority concerned in accordance with that authority’s allocation scheme, which is made by the elected members under section 22 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 and in compliance with Social Housing Allocation Regulations 2011.

In making their allocation schemes, authorities are required to specify, among other things, the manner of, and the order of priority for, the allocation of dwellings to households on the waiting list and households who have been approved for transfers.

It is common for local authorities to set particular criteria for social housing tenants seeking to transfer from one local authority dwelling to another, such as clear rent arrears, such matters are solely a matter for the relevant local authority.