Written answers

Wednesday, 21 April 2021

Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government

Housing Data

Photo of Matt CarthyMatt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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737. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of households currently in receipt of the housing assistance payment support in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19382/21]

Photo of Matt CarthyMatt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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738. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the Exchequer expenditure on the housing assistance payment scheme in each of the years 2016 to 2020 inclusive by county in tabular form; the expected outlay for HAP per county in 2021; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19383/21]

Photo of Matt CarthyMatt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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761. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of households in receipt of the housing assistance payment that have applied for a discretionary top up to their HAP payment; the number that were approved; the number of these applicants that received the full entitlement of the 20% top-up by county in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19679/21]

Photo of Darragh O'BrienDarragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 737, 738 and 761 together.

The Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) is a flexible and immediate housing support that is available to all eligible households throughout the State. At end Q4 2020 there were nearly 60,000 households in receipt of HAP and over 33,520 separate landlords and agents providing accommodation to households supported by the scheme.

In respect of the provision of HAP funding, Limerick City and County Council provides a highly effective HAP transactional shared service on behalf of all local authorities. This HAP Shared Services Centre (SSC) manages all HAP related rental transactions for the tenant, local authority and landlord. Accordingly, my Department does not recoup individual local authorities in respect of HAP rental payments in their administrative areas but, rather, recoups all landlord costs via the HAP SSC.

Budget 2021 increased the Exchequer funding for the HAP scheme to €558 million. This will allow for the continued support of existing HAP households and also enable an additional 15,000 households to be supported by HAP in 2021.

Data in relation to funding provided by the State for HAP tenancies in 2019 and 2020, broken down by local authority area, can be found on my Department's website at this link:

This funding represents the portion paid by my Department after receipt of the differential rent which is paid by the tenant to the local authority. It does not include administration costs related to the Scheme.

Details on the Total Exchequer funding for HAP from 2016 to 2020 are set out in the table below:

Year No. of Local Authorities operating HAP Scheme Outturn - €M
2016 28 57.69
2017 31 152.69
2018 31 276.60
2019 31 382.40
2020 31 464.60

The table below shows the number of households at the end of Q4 2020, broken down by local authority, who are in receipt of Housing Assistance Payment support.

Local Authority Total Active HAP Tenancies @ 31-12-2020
Carlow County Council 743
Cavan County Council 429
Clare County Council 1,423
Cork City Council 3,133
Cork County Council 3,722
Donegal County Council 1,833
Dublin City Council 4,863
Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council 735
Fingal County Council 2,089
Galway City Council 1,951
Galway County Council 1,428
Kerry County Council 1,623
Kildare County Council 2,398
Kilkenny County Council 854
Laois County Council 982
Leitrim County Council 293
Limerick City & County Council 2,442
Longford County Council 379
Louth County Council 3,280
Mayo County Council 1,356
Meath County Council 2,275
Monaghan County Council 628
Offaly County Council 877
Roscommon County Council 468
Sligo County Council 831
South Dublin County Council 2,936
Tipperary County Council 1,868
Waterford City & County Council 2,127
Westmeath County Council 1,014
Wexford County Council 1,613
Wicklow County Council 1,668
Dublin Regional Homeless Executive* 7,560
Grand Total 59,821

*The DRHE is operating the HAP Homeless Place Finder Service on behalf of the four Dublin local authorities.

Each local authority has statutory discretion to agree to a HAP payment up to 20% above the prescribed maximum rent limit to secure appropriate accommodation for a household that requires it, or up to 50% in the case of homeless households in the Dublin region. It is a matter for the local authority to determine, on a case by case basis, whether, and to what extent, the application of the flexibility is warranted. My Department does not hold data on the number of households in receipt of the housing assistance payment that have applied for a discretionary top up to their HAP payment.

The table below shows the number of households at the end of Q4 2020, broken down by local authority, who are in receipt of discretion, and sets out the average level of discretion in each area. This table excludes homeless households in Dublin who were eligible to receive up to 50% discretion.

Local Authority Number of Tenancies availing of discretion - Excluding DRHE Homeless 50% Average level of discretion %
Carlow County Council 294 17.7%
Cavan County Council 144 18.2%
Clare County Council 895 18.8%
Cork City Council 1,655 16.6%
Cork County Council 790 17.5%
Donegal County Council 117 19.9%
Dublin City Council 2,766 15.7%
Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council 622 18.0%
Fingal County Council 1,224 14.8%
Galway City Council 1,451 16.8%
Galway County Council 608 17.2%
Kerry County Council 895 18.6%
Kildare County Council 1,252 14.7%
Kilkenny County Council 242 19.5%
Laois County Council 589 18.9%
Leitrim County Council 53 19.8%
Limerick City and County Council 554 18.4%
Longford County Council 168 18.9%
Louth County Council 1,231 17.0%
Mayo County Council 1,160 18.2%
Meath County Council 1,668 16.3%
Monaghan County Council 444 18.8%
Offaly County Council 285 18.0%
Roscommon County Council 173 18.5%
Sligo County Council 93 14.8%
South Dublin County Council 434 14.5%
Tipperary County Council 525 17.9%
Waterford City and County Council 829 18.5%
Westmeath County Council 359 16.7%
Wexford County Council 681 17.2%
Wicklow County Council 506 16.6%
Total 22,707 17.0%

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