“We do certainly have to increase our capital spend,” he said. HAP sees a person locate their own rental accommodation which is then subsidised by a payment from the State. The meeting heard that spending on HAP is currently €558m per year, with a total outlay for such housing supports at least €1bn. Social Democrats TD Catherine Murphy suggested that the State’s current approach of persisting with HAP and the Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS) is in effect “lazy”. Mr Doyle also said that without schemes like HAP and RAS, the State would not have been able to house thousands of people.

Source: Irish Examiner June 03, 2021 10:54 UTC