The Committee of Public Accounts (PAC) has issued a damning report into how housing is being operated by the State.
In particular, schemes like the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) and the Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS) which cost just over €650m last year, were found to represent poor value for money for the Exchequer.
The long-term leasing of housing by local authorities and housing bodies were also deemed not to represent value for money for the taxpayer.
The schemes were also criticised for not providing the State with assets and were described as not effective long-term solutions to social housing needs.
The report by PAC highlighted five areas of concern including:
- Oversight of, and expenditure on, the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP);
- lack of value-for-money from long-term leasing; the absence of a breakdown of the cost of social housing bundles delivered through public-private partnerships (PPP);
- the use of virements to transfer monies between subheads …