Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 1 October 2026
98. Deputy Gillian Toole asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if the housing assistance payment scheme will be extended to include the housing asset-owning parents of persons with additional needs and disabilities. [69734/26]
View answerIt is estimated that there are approximately 100,000 people with varying disabilities in need of planned living arrangements, yet only 2% are on social housing lists, which is a prerequisite for the provision of State-supported accommodation. There are older parents with prior Government-encouraged properties that could be shared by groups of adults with intellectual disabilities with appropriate wraparound services. Will the housing assistance payment scheme be extended to include the housing asset-owning parents of people with disabilities?
I thank Deputy Toole for her important question about housing supports for persons with additional needs and disabilities. The housing assistance payment scheme is a social housing support, so an assessment of housing needs must be completed in order to qualify for HAP. Any household with an identified housing need is eligible for HAP. For housing assistance to be provided, the housing authority must be satisfied that the tenancy is or would be a tenancy in good faith. Where there is a family relationship between the tenant and the landlord, the housing authority may seek evidence of a previous landlord and tenant relationship in respect of the property. This evidence may include proof of rent and payments, a lease or tenancy agreement for the property and RTB tenancy registration. In order for a housing authority to be satisfied that a tenancy is or would be in good faith, the onus is on the applicant and the landlord to prove what is being proposed is a bona fide tenancy. Ultimately, it is the responsibility of the housing authority to make a decision in each individual case.
HAP payments cannot be made on homes acquired by family members solely to provide a housing solution to a particular HAP applicant or member of their household. Disabled people can access social housing support through all the available routes, namely, standard local authority housing rental assistance schemes, approved housing bodies and HAP. Applications for social housing support are assessed by the relevant local authority and the allocation of dwellings is a matter for the local authority concerned in accordance with its allocation scheme.
The National Housing Strategy for Disabled Persons 2022-2027 implementation plan set out the vision for the co-operation and collaboration of Government Departments, State agencies and others in delivering housing and related supports for disabled people. Our work is also advancing on the mid-term review of the implementation plan for the national strategy, with the intention of publishing a revised plan later this year. I work closely with the Minister, Deputy Norma Foley, on these matters.
I understand the rules of the HAP scheme and I understand the efforts that are being made and the reporting that local authorities will need to provide. The core problem here is that the majority of families are not aware that they should place their loved one on the social housing list. We have six different methods and metrics for recording, according to HSE officials speaking at a committee yesterday. It will be five years before we have one health identifier scheme. We have a massive black hole caused by an absence of data. In the interim, we have 2,000 parents over the age of 75 who are caring for a loved one with varying abilities. In the interim, an amendment to the HAP scheme would provide an interim arrangement until appropriate stock becomes available.
I met Before We Die and I met local groups and individuals in my own county, Wexford. I am very much aware of the very understandable worry and concern of older parents for their children with disabilities as those parents age and maybe get to the later end of their own lives. That is why I have had multiple meetings with the Minister, Deputy Foley, devising a proposal and a plan to be implemented in my Department on delivering housing for people with disabilities, whether they require residential support or to be able to live independently with a disability. The Department is moving to directly deliver those properties because my sense of it before now and my experience as a TD is that there can be an awful lot of back and forth between a local authority and the HSE about who is on a list, who is not on a list, and whether a property is needed or not. We know we need the properties and homes. We are determined to deliver those at a national level.
I will press the Minister on this. I appreciate the great efforts that he, the Minister, Deputy Foley, and their support teams are making in this regard but we have a serious time lag here. We are talking about probably 30 or 40 years in which there has been a complete lack of forward planning. Given the five-year lead-in time for the amalgamation of six different data sets into one health identifier, which will then link in with the local authority process, I suggest the Minister consider having a pilot of what I am suggesting for HAP during that five-year period. Stock simply is not going to come on stream. We do not have a statutory requirement or a breakdown of what percentage of the Part V requirement will go to older people and people with disabilities, or what the balance will be for those who have other medical needs. Would the Minister consider a five-year pilot? That would dovetail with the gathering of data and the necessary building of universal design plus or plus plus homes in consultation with developers.
I thank Deputy Toole again for raising this important matter. In some ways, what we are doing in the Department of housing is intending to lead with the drive to deliver the necessary homes, both for independent adapted living and also for community residential living. While it certainly will not take five years, it will take a lead-in time to start getting those homes delivered. I certainly have heard the Deputy and will take her concerns and proposal into consideration. I will come back to her on the issue.
