Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 14 December 2022
81. Deputy Sorca Clarke asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of successful and unsuccessful applications to the caravan loan scheme in relation to supporting the provision of Traveller-specific accommodation by county in tabular form. [62486/22]
View answerThe Housing (Traveller Accommodation) Act 1998 provides that the role of my Department is to ensure that there are adequate structures and supports in place to assist housing authorities in providing accommodation for Travellers, including a national framework of policy, legislation and funding.
The Act provides that housing authorities have statutory responsibility for the assessment of the accommodation needs of Travellers and the preparation, adoption and implementation of multi-annual Traveller Accommodation Programmes (TAPs) in their areas.
The nationwide pilot Caravan Loan Scheme was introduced to support the provision of Traveller-specific accommodation through local authorities to provide preferential loans to Travellers to purchase their own caravan or mobile home for use as their primary residence. A circular issued from my Department to all local authorities on 18 July 2022 informing them of the extended nationwide pilot Caravan Loan Scheme. The pilot scheme is limited to the provision of up to 75 caravans or €3 million, whichever is the lesser, across all local authorities, until the end of 2022.
My Department provides funding for caravan loans to be drawn down by local authorities. The following table outlines the number of caravan loans drawn down by each local authority to date in 2022.
|
Local Authority |
Number of Caravan Loans drawn down to date under the Nationwide Pilot Scheme 2022 |
|
Carlow |
- |
|
Cavan |
- |
|
Clare |
- |
|
Cork City* |
11 |
|
Cork County |
1 |
|
Donegal |
- |
|
Dublin City |
18 |
|
Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown* |
6 |
|
Fingal* |
10 |
|
South Dublin |
13 |
|
Galway City |
4 |
|
Galway County |
- |
|
Kerry |
- |
|
Kildare |
2 |
|
Kilkenny |
- |
|
Laois |
- |
|
Leitrim |
- |
|
Limerick City & County |
3 |
|
Longford |
- |
|
Louth |
1 |
|
Mayo |
- |
|
Meath |
- |
|
Monaghan |
- |
|
Offaly |
- |
|
Roscommon |
- |
|
Sligo* |
6 |
|
Tipperary |
- |
|
Waterford City & County |
- |
|
Westmeath |
- |
|
Wexford |
- |
|
Wicklow |
- |
|
Total |
75 |
* Applications made and being processed.
The information sought on applications not proceeded with by local authorities is not available in my Department and may be available from the local authority.
On completion of the pilot, my Department will review the operation of the pilot scheme with input from the local authorities and other stakeholders. A report will be prepared for the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and options for an enduring scheme will be considered at the conclusion of this process.
