Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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91. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the figures on the Galway City Council and Galway County Council transfer list, specifically in relation to those households that have been put on a transfer list after having gone into RAS, HAP and-or long-term leasing; the criteria for allocation of a local authority house to a household on this list; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35474/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The practical operation of transfer lists is a matter for each local authority to manage, on the basis of their scheme of letting priorities. My Department does not gather or hold any information on households seeking a transfer to an alternative social housing support whether they are currently having their housing needs met through HAP, RAS and or any other form of social housing support. On 16 December 2014, a statutory direction was issued to all authorities involved in the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme, instructing them to take the necessary steps to ensure that households benefiting from HAP can avail of a move to other forms of social housing support, should they wish to do so, through a transfer option. Local authorities were also directed that HAP recipients, who apply to go on the transfer list, should get full credit for the time they spent on the waiting list and be placed on the transfer list with no less favourable terms than if they had remained on the waiting list.

It is ultimately up to the household to choose if they wish to be placed on a local authority’s transfer list, and I understand that the majority of HAP households do avail of this option. As of the start of November 2016, over 190 households across the country have transferred from the HAP scheme to other forms of social housing support.