New Bill to bring greater clarity on eligibility for social housing

The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, James Browne TD today confirmed that his department would be introducing the Housing and Residential Tenancies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026 to make amendments to the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 by adding lawful residency and habitual residency to eligibility criteria for social housing support.

The Bill introducing the amendments, to be published this week, will clearly set out the lawful residency criteria for each citizenship type – Irish, UK, EU/EEA, Non EU/EEA (granted subsidiary protection, refugee, permission to remain, programme refugee) and other Non-EU/EEA nationals.

The Bill introduces clear legal requirements that applicants must:

• Be lawfully resident
• Be habitually resident in the State

Minister Browne emphasised:

New appeals mechanism

The Bill also puts in place a new statutory appeals mechanism for local authority decisions relating to social housing eligibility and assessment in general. In October 2025, the Government approved amendments to introduce an appeals process for decisions relating to assessment for social housing. Detailed provisions are now incorporated into this Bill setting out the appeals mechanism and stipulating that each local authority will appoint an appeals officer to decide on cases, independent in the performance of his or her regular functions. They must decide the appeal within 28 days of receipt of the appeal.

See Editor’s Note below for further details.

The Bill can be accessed at https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/bills/bill/2026/58/

ENDS

Editor’s Note

What does lawfully resident mean for the purposes of social housing support?

These legislative reforms build on existing policy and procedures which define social housing as a long-term housing support and therefore successful applicants must demonstrate a long-term right to reside in the State; and similarly, have a long-term intention to remain in Ireland as their home.

What does habitually resident mean for the purposes of social housing support?

The Bill also provides for the introduction of habitual residency as a new eligibility criterion. Adding the habitual residence as a requirement is consistent with the approach taken in social protection. The measure will ensure social housing support recipients are resident in the State, have close links to the State, and have made Ireland their home.

This habitual residence requirement is a question of fact, which seeks to ascertain whether the household member has established his or her ‘centre of interest’ in the State by examining family connections, length of stay, employment history etc.

Who is not entitled to social housing support?

As with existing policy, those who have applied for International Protection but have yet to receive a decision; a person who has a deportation or a return order against them where the notification is in force; those with immigration permissions that do not permit them accessing certain social and public services and those on certain temporary permissions, e.g. Temporary Protection.

The Bill underpins existing policy in relation to residency requirements – that is successful applicants must demonstrate a long-term entitlement to reside in the State. The most recent summary of social housing assessment clearly demonstrates the various citizenship types that are on the social housing waiting list. The new statutory requirements will not change this. The Bill does introduce a new policy – habitual residency. This is to ensure that social housing support recipients are resident in the State, have close links to the State, and have made Ireland their home.

What are the residency requirements for Non-EU nationals (who have not been granted subsidiary protection, refugee status, permission to remain or who are programme refugees)?

As with existing policy, Non-EU nationals (who have not been granted subsidiary protection, refugee status, permission to remain or who are programme refugees) must be lawfully resident for a period, or periods comprising a total of at least five years during the period of eight years or lawfully resident for a period of less than five year during the period of eight years that enables them to achieve five years, under the conditions outlined above.

The Bill gives the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage with the consent of the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration, the power to prescribe in regulations a class or classes of persons. It may include persons being to whom permission as may be specified by the Minister (‘specified permission’) has been given, in accordance with the law of the State, to be or to remain in the State and where considered appropriate who have been lawfully resident for such period (‘specified period’) immediately preceding a ‘specified permission.

What about Households with mix of the above categories?

Once the main applicant meets the lawful residency requirement (Irish, UK, EU/EEA, Non EU/EEA) his/her ‘connected member’ may be considered as part of a joint application provided on the day the application is made, they are resident in the State in accordance with a permission that is in force. A ‘connected member’ in this context means a member of a household who is one of the following - a spouse of the main applicant, a civil partner or a cohabitant.

Are there people on the waiting list who aren’t entitled to Social Housing now?

The Bill underpins existing policy in relation to residency requirements – that is successful applicants must demonstrate a long-term right to reside in the State. The most recent summary of social housing assessment clearly demonstrates the various citizenship types that are on the social housing waiting list – Irish, UK, EU/EEA nationals and Non/EU EEA nationals. The new statutory requirements will not change this.

The Bill does introduce a new habitual residency requirement and new applicants and those who are being reassessed after the legislation is commenced will need to meet this new requirement.

However, this habitual residency requirement will not be onerous for those already assessed for social housing, given that they are likely to already be present in the State for a significant period of time.

What about Ukrainian refugees resident under the Temporary Protection Directive?

Ukrainian refugees in Ireland reside under the EU Temporary Protection Directive, which has been extended and is valid until March 4, 2027. Adopted into Irish law under Section 60 of the International Protection Act 2015, persons residing in the State under this permission are not regarded as being habitually resident in the State for the purposes of social housing support due to the temporary nature of the permission.

What about asylum seekers/ IPAS residents?

IPAS residents whose application has yet to be determined, are not lawfully or habitually resident for the purposes of social housing support. Successful International Protection applicants (those given Refugee status, Subsidiary Protection or Permission to Remain) and Refugees under the Irish Refugee Protection Programme automatically qualify for assessment because they’ve been granted a long-term right to remain in the State. They must be habitually resident.

Will this reduce the numbers of people accessing social housing?

The introduction of this Bill will have little material effect on the numbers accessing social housing. The Bill seeks to underpin the existing policy on a statutory footing and to ensure that successful applicants have a long-term right to reside in the State; and similarly, have a long-term intention to remain.

The General Scheme went through pre-legislative scrutiny, and a report was submitted by the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission.

Following this, a number of amendments to the General Scheme were approved by Government including that the lawfully resident requirement shall not apply to a member of household who is a child. This is considered necessary as while often the residence application of a minor is linked to or dependent on that of their parents, it is not always the case.

Significant consultation and engagement has taken place between the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (DHLGH) and the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration (DJHAM) in relation to the complex interaction of the immigration system and local authority decision-making. This interaction includes existing operations under Circular 41/2012 and matters relating to individual permissions, Stamps and conditionality.

Part 2 also provides for appeal of social housing assessment decisions by housing authority decision makers.

A household who has made an application under s20 and who is unhappy with the decision of a local authority in so far as it relates to the local authority’s determination of the household’s qualification for social housing support and the appropriate form of such support may appeal the decision(s).

Detailed guidance will be issued supported by ongoing local authority information and practice information sharing, workshops etc. and Departmental and sectoral monitoring of the volume of appeal decisions and their outcome should be put in place.