Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 24 July 2018
2763. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government the annual spend for 2015, 2016 and 2017 and the projected spend for 2018 and 2019 on leasing, housing assistance payment and rental accommodation scheme agreements between local authorities and landlords by authority and type of agreement; and the number of these arrangements that are direct transfers from rent allowance arrangements. [35065/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe three current expenditure funded housing schemes – the Social Housing Current Expenditure Programme (SHCEP), the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) and the Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS) - are critical components of the accelerated delivery of social housing envisaged under the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness.
The annual cost of the three schemes to the Exchequer is made up of the continuing cost of supporting the tenancies and contracts in place at the end of the previous year, and the additional cost of the new tenancies and contracts supported over the course of the year to which the allocation relates.
SHCEP supports the delivery of social housing by providing financial support to local authorities for the long term leasing of houses and apartments from private owners, developers and Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs). Properties made available under the programme are used to accommodate households from local authority waiting lists.
Details on the number of SHCEP agreements supported by my Department in 2015, 2016 and 2017 are published on my Department’s website at the following link: www.housing.gov.ie/housing/social-housing/social-and-affordble/overall-social-housing-provision. Expenditure in respect of SHCEP for the years 2015-2017, broken down by local authority, is detailed in the following table. €114.586m has been allocated to SHCEP in 2018.
At the end of Q2 2018, there were 37,751 active tenancies being supported by the HAP scheme in the 31 local authority areas. A breakdown of the number of households supported by HAP, in each local authority area from when the scheme began in 2014 to end 2017, is available on my Department’s website at the following link: www.housing.gov.ie/housing/social-housing/social-and-affordble/overall-social-housing-provision. The Exchequer outturns for the HAP scheme in 2015, 2016 and 2017 were €15.64m, €57.7m and €152.697m, respectively. Under Budget 2018, Exchequer funding of €301.336m is being made available for the HAP scheme this year.
Limerick City and County Council provides a 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.
RAS places responsibility on local authorities to meet the accommodation needs of people in receipt of Rent Supplement for 18 months or longer, and who are assessed as having a long-term housing need. In the period since RAS commenced in 2005 to the end of December 2017, some 60,338 households have been transferred from Rent Supplement to RAS and other social housing options. Of this number 34,493 were housed directly under RAS. Data for the years 2011 to 2016 on the number and cost of tenancies funded under the RAS scheme, broken down by local authority, is available on my Department's website at the following link: www.housing.gov.ie/housing/social-housing/social-and-affordble/overall-social-housing-provision. The number of RAS tenancies in place at the end of 2017 was 19,755 and expenditure on the scheme in 2017 was just under €143m. €134.338m has been allocated to RAS in 2018.
The 2019 budgetary provision for specific housing programmes will be determined in the context of the forthcoming estimates process.
Social Housing Current Expenditure Programme (SHCEP) Expenditure paid to Local Authorities in 2015, 2016 and 2017
|
Local Authority |
2015* |
2016 |
2017 |
|
CARLOW |
530,205 |
585,327 |
1,302,249 |
|
CAVAN |
64,493 |
196,193 |
428,427 |
|
CLARE |
882,570 |
1,595,479 |
1,989,287 |
|
CORK CITY |
1,107,646 |
1,771,180 |
2,219,141 |
|
CORK COUNTY |
3,712,136 |
4,203,863 |
4,522,657 |
|
DONEGAL |
1,248,328 |
1,067,305 |
2,076,634 |
|
DUBLIN CITY |
7,388,093 |
10,345,395 |
14,840,312 |
|
DUN LAOGHAIRE/RATHDOWN |
1,768,110 |
2,094,115 |
4,597,875 |
|
FINGAL |
3,385,519 |
4,666,247 |
6,547,004 |
|
GALWAY CITY |
1,607,240 |
2,315,093 |
3,589,992 |
|
GALWAY COUNTY |
385,394 |
346,807 |
833,507 |
|
KERRY |
668,351 |
935,162 |
2,106,983 |
|
KILDARE |
1,550,610 |
1,430,712 |
3,634,286 |
|
KILKENNY |
737,465 |
740,649 |
908,544 |
|
LAOIS |
585,566 |
1,190,925 |
1,511,241 |
|
LEITRIM |
9,093 |
65,473 |
77,468 |
|
LIMERICK |
270,920 |
504,557 |
719,490 |
|
LONGFORD |
147,813 |
356,011 |
515,178 |
|
LOUTH |
2,646,597 |
3,046,688 |
3,610,161 |
|
MAYO |
790,964 |
856,278 |
945,590 |
|
MEATH |
1,211,043 |
1,138,730 |
2,754,186 |
|
MONAGHAN |
2,262 |
44,782 |
168,962 |
|
OFFALY |
943,158 |
1,358,477 |
1,957,083 |
|
ROSCOMMON |
25,901 |
33,549 |
34,590 |
|
SLIGO |
278,926 |
340,996 |
349,787 |
|
SOUTH DUBLIN |
5,631,522 |
6,245,168 |
12,861,316 |
|
TIPPERARY |
1,742,186 |
1629455 |
2,597,202 |
|
WATERFORD |
691,391 |
1,078,131 |
1,306,809 |
|
WESTMEATH |
1,128,189 |
2,006,539 |
1,714,383 |
|
WEXFORD |
689,804 |
1,228,254 |
1,910,528 |
|
WICKLOW |
318,744 |
576,482 |
938,929 |
|
TOTAL |
42,150,239 |
53,997,022 |
83,569,801 |
* The 2015 expenditure figure of €42m include offsets of €7.8m against local authorities' RAS Reserve
