COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

South Dublin County Council Crest

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, September 14, 2020

QUESTION NO. 15

QUESTION: Councillor L. Kinsella-Colman

To ask the Chief executive to produce a report detailing how many RAS tenants are in the County, how may are on RAS transfer lists, average time before transfer is realised and to make a statement on this matter?

REPLY:

The commencement of Section 19 of the Housing Act 2009 recognised the Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS) as a social housing support and as such RAS tenants were formally deemed to be in receipt of social housing support and could not remain on the standard housing list.   While all RAS tenants from October 2010 were advised accordingly, a 2011 Housing Circular (28/2011) recommended that a special transfer pathway be provided from RAS to other forms of social housing for tenants who signed up prior to October 2010 as those tenants had previously been given assurances that they could remain on the housing list and would have had a reasonable expectation that their access to traditional social housing accommodation would be maintained. 

In this regard in November 2011 South Dublin County Council contacted the 730 such RAS tenants who were given the opportunity to have their name placed on a Fixed RAS Transfer list with eligibility for offers of accommodation in accordance with time on list in line with the housing list.  309 RAS tenants subsequently applied for inclusion on this fixed transfer list and they were facilitated with access to the Choice Based Letting (CBL) system in October 2013.

There are currently 1,139 Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS) tenancies in the County while 97 applicants remain on the RAS Fixed Transfer List.

Such applicants have ongoing access to Choice Based Letting (CBL) which allows them to express interest in properties advertised each week and an order of priority for each property is generated based on the time on list of applicants to determine which applicant is allocated that property.

While applicants being previously offered accommodation from the RAS Fixed Transfer List have had an average application time of approximately 5.7 years this is not necessarily indicative of potential waiting times for applicants currently on that list given the nature of how CBL operates and the many variables including the location of properties being advertised and the level of competing demand for properties.