The Complex Local Authority Housing List By Nuala Nolan – Galway
23/02/26
Dear Editor,
We hear a lot about the Local Authority Housing List, but few people ever get to see this list. Data Protection in this case has led to the lack of transparency.
So, how transparent can this list be if only a select few see it? To my knowledge elected Representatives never get access to the complete list.
Elected Councillors should be allowed to inspect the Social Housing List in order to make adequate representations for clients and to ensure that allocations are done in a fair and transparent manner. Surely the tried and tested “Time-Based Housing Allocation” should not have been abandoned as the present situation has led to friction and calls of unfairness in allocations of new social homes.
Then there is a Priority List where some tenant by-passes the time-based list, who decides who gets on this Priority List? Do the proposed tenants have to tick boxes, and who decides which boxes that are to be ticked? In this process are the needs of those years on the Social Housing List getting their needs re-assed or by-passed?
At present, Priority Housing can be manipulated, leaving some people on the Housing List nearly 10 years or more in limbo not knowing if they will ever get a permanent home.
Tenants on the HAP Scheme (Housing Accommodation Scheme) are deemed “adequately housed” by Local Authorities and are put on a “Transfer List” so their housing need is downgraded, most of these tenants don’t know this. So, when their landlord wants to sell up, they find they may even have been taking off the Housing List altogether!
This a dilemma for many housed under the HAP Scheme in 2026. They now find themselves “Homeless” as landlords vacate the rental market in droves due no new Government initiatives coming in in March where tenants will have a right to tenancy for 6 years before a landlord has a right take back the property.
Yours Sincerely,
Nuala Nolan
