Séamus McGrath (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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1423. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if there are any circumstances whereby a social housing applicant can transfer his or her application to another local authority and retain their original date of application. [41167/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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The qualification criteria for social housing support are set down in Section 20 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 and the Social Housing Assessment Regulations 2011, as amended.

A household may apply for social housing support to one local 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 where the authority agrees, at its discretion, to assess the household for support. A household may then 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.

A household may, not less than 12 months after the date on which it is first entered on a housing authority’s housing list, notify the housing authority of application that it wishes to change one, or more than one, area of choice in the application area and a household may change one, or more than one, such area not less than 12 months after its most recent change of an area of choice. An applicant does not lose any time on the list by changing their area of choice.

Generally, is not possible for a household previously on one social housing waiting list to carry the time spent on that list when applying to another local authority. However, local authorities may provide for exceptional or emergency cases to qualified households, allowing immediate housing outside of normal waiting lists priorities, should circumstances require. They may also reserve a certain proportion of dwellings for, among other things, allocation to particular categories of households, particular forms of tenure, and households transferring from other forms of social housing support.

Séamus McGrath (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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1424. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if there are any circumstances whereby a social housing tenant can transfer to a property in another local authority in another county i.e. in cases where there are extenuating family and personal reasons and there should be some provision for this. [41168/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Requests for housing transfers are considered 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, as amended.

In making their allocation schemes, local 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. Ultimately, it is a matter for the local authority to decide the conditions to be met in relation to transfer applications.

Some local authorities have provisions in their allocation schemes for inter authority/mutual transfers for sitting tenants whereby the authority is prepared to accommodate applications provided certain criteria are met. Such arrangements are entirely a matter for the local authority concerned.