Leitrim HAP tenants making large top up payments to landlords

The large top ups that Leitrim tenants must pay to landlords under the HAP scheme was highlighted this week

Published 7th May 2026, 21:00 BST HAP tenants in Leitrim are facing paying large top up payments The large top ups that Leitrim tenants must pay to landlords under the HAP scheme was highlighted this week Sign up to our Leitrim Live newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know you can manage your profile, and explore all of the available newsletters from Leitrim Live within your account.

The large top ups that Leitrim tenants must pay to landlords under the HAP scheme was highlighted this week.

Cllr Róisín Kenny (SF) submitted a motion on the issue to the bi-monthly meeting of Leitrim County Council.

Cllr Kenny's motion proposed that, “Leitrim County Council take into account top up payments that tenants on the Housing Assistance Payment have to make to landlords when setting the rent they pay to the local authority.”

“With the very low HAP rent rate limits in the county, ranging from €340 for a single person to a maximum of €675 for a family with three children, renters, due to lack of accomodation, have no alternative, but to pay large top ups to landlords.

“For this not to be considered when calculating the local authority portion of their rent seems very unfair,” the motion added.

Speaking on her motion, Cllr Kenny said, “we all know people in this situation where rent is nearly double that of the HAP payment.”

The Aughavas based councillor went on to outline the case of a tenant hit hard financially as a result of the situation.

“I know of a woman paying €400 per month rent. Of this, she pays €50 per month. The landlord has to do refurbishment of the house and she has been informed that the rent will increase to €1,000 per month as a result of this,” she explained.

“A person who is on the HAP scheme is also on the social housing list and it is not their fault,” Cllr Kenny added.

“People are afraid to bring up the likes of maintenance issues and there are people in dire straits because of this,” she continued.

Cllr Kenny's motion found support with party colleague Cllr Brendan Barry.

“There is unfairness with the HAP scheme. The scheme determines what tenants can pay and it is unfair that they would have to pay €600 or €700 on top of that,” he stated.

A written reply from Justin Fannon, Acting Director of Services with responsibility for Housing, Planning, Corporate Services and Transformation,

stated that, “The new Differential Rent Scheme that came into effect on May 1st for new tenants and which is being rolled out to existing tenants was recently circulated to the elected members.”

“This scheme has been developed to ensure a fair, transparent and consistent approach to rent assessment for all local authority tenants. Section 10 of the new Differential Rent Scheme is entitled HAP Specific Hardship Clause and makes provision for reduced rent for HAP recipients for a period of time where their total weekly rent exceeds 35% of their total income subject to certain conditions,” the reply added.

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