Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 21 March 2013
174. Deputy John Lyons asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if his Department is involved in discussions with local authorities to give prioritisation to applicants for social housing support based on the length of time they have been on the waiting list; and if so, if he will provide an update on such a change to the scheme of letting priorities being introduced. [14466/13]
View answerAs part of my role as Minister with responsibility for housing and planning I am overseeing a programme of social housing reform. This includes elaborating on the Social Housing (Allocation) Regulations 2011 which came into force in May 2011, and set out the conditions that housing authorities must take into account when making their allocation schemes. As part of the programme of reform, my intention is to place a greater emphasis on ‘time on the list’ as a criterion for allocating local authority housing, as such a criterion will provide a much more transparent system for the operation of a waiting list than the current point based system operated by many authorities.
