Focus Ireland calls for urgent Govt review of HAP to prevent more families & individuals from losing their homes
Focus Ireland held a special event at Buswell’s Hotel today (July 8th 2025) to further highlight the need for an urgent reform of HAP (Housing Assistance Payment) to help protect the almost 54,000 households who rely on the payment to sustain their home.
Speakers included: Professor Michelle Norris, Director of the Geary Institute for Public Policy at UCD and former member of the Housing Commission who spoke on the Commission’s recommendations regarding HAP.
Meanwhile, Siobhán O’Donoghue, Senior Investigator at the Office of the Ombudsman also spoke at the event as she outlined the main findings of the Ombudsman’s recently published Investigation of the HAP Scheme. The issues discovered by the investigation included overly complex processes and the duplication of work by local authorities causing delays to housing assistance payment (HAP) applications, alongside the refusal of legitimate applications.
Also speaking about the urgent need for HAP reform at the event was Focus Ireland Director of Advocacy Mike Allen who said: “While we welcomed the long-term benefits of some of the recently announced protections for tenants, we remain extremely concerned that the immediate effect will be a period of further rent inflation, leaving low-income households at an even more significant risk of losing their homes.”
”For several years, the Government has been regulating rent levels but has taken no interest in the impact of rent increases on the almost 54,000 households that rely on HAP to sustain their home.”
He added: “Since the HAP rental limits were last adjusted in 2016, HAP has fallen well behind new market rents , pushing families into poverty, debt, and serious risk of homelessness. There is plenty of quality information already available on HAP – including the recently published investigation of the HAP scheme by the Ombudsman – so we do not need a long, drawn out review in order to implement a number of key changes, including an increase of HAP rates, which would immediately prevent many people from losing their rented homes.”
“The fact that the Minister for Housing is in favour of such a review is both welcome and important. It is crucial that this review gets Cabinet approval and is undertaken and acted on quickly.”
Conor Roe, Head of A&I and Day services, Focus Ireland concluded the event as he also spoke about the impact of the current HAP system on real people contacting Focus Ireland as they are at risk of losing their rented home as they can’t afford the rent or they have already become homeless.