More than 100 HAP tenants in Dublin lost their homes after poor conditions flagged

Ciara Hill is homeless again.  

Her last stretch of homelessness lasted three years, she says. Until she found a small flat in Rathmines, paying the rent with the help of the Homeless Housing Assistance Payment (Homeless HAP).

But she lost her rental home after she reported the conditions to Dublin City Council’s environmental health officers, and they came and inspected and pressed, as is their role, for it to be fixed.

After many warnings to the landlord, the council issued a prohibition notice, which means the council can prosecute him if he rerents the property without bringing it up to code. 

And with that, they also stopped the Homeless HAP payments.

Hill stayed for a while as she had nowhere to go, she says. When she moved out in January 2025, she owed €10,000 in rent, says Hill.

Now, she sleeps on a relative’s sofa, said Hill, on Thursday by phone – and is waiting desperately for a permanent social home.

The rental inspections system just isn’t fair to tenants, says Hill. “I feel failed.”

The HAP scheme “is an opportunity to improve standards and levels of compliance” in the rental sector, said Labour’s Jan O’Sullivan, a minister of state, when the scheme was being put into law more than a decade ago.

But both not exercising, and exercising, that opportunity, carries costs.

Failing to enforce standards can leave tenants helpless and angry at the poor conditions and impunity.

Hill was frustrated by the lack of enforcement of standards in the years that she lived in the flat too. She didn’t realise pushing for the landlord to improve the standards could mean her HAP payment being cut off, she said. 

But also, since 2020, 88 Homeless HAP tenants across the Dublin region have lost their homes after the council issued prohibition notices and cut off the subsidy, according to a council response to Sinn Féin Councillor Daithí Doolan.

Another 31 regular HAP tenants in the Dublin City Council area have too, it says.

Doolan says councillors face a dilemma when HAP tenants ask them for help with unhealthy accommodation. Help tenants pursue a case, and they could end up homeless.

At a council housing committee meeting on 8 September, Michelle McNally, principal environmental health officer, said that the HAP payment depends on the property hitting minimum standards.  

The council is ramping up enforcement of environmental standards and the process works in most cases, she says. Dublin City Council brought 3,479 homes into compliance in 2024, said McNally. 

Opposition TDs and councillors have proposed solutions that would protect tenants who complain about the poorest conditions – such as powers to CPO the substandard properties, the power to carry out works and bill the landlord, or to prioritise HAP tenants who are displaced for permanent social homes. 

The building

From late 2023 and into early 2024, Ciara Hill struggled to get her landlord, Mel Kilraine, to do the necessary work to make her home habitable. 

Black mould clung to the walls. The bathroom ceiling collapsed. She had to ask neighbours to use a toilet.

(Kilraine couldn’t be reached for comment at the time.)

In June 2022, the council had issued a prohibition notice for the property – a step, after other steps, that the council can take to try to force a landlord to do necessary maintenance.

Then after some work was done on Ciara’s home, the council lifted the prohibition notice.  

But when the council environmental health officers inspected again in August 2023, they found 24 breaches of minimum standards – and then the toilet ceiling fell in.

The council took action. It issued a second prohibition notice – and this time it stopped paying Homeless HAP. 

Hill’s old flat is currently subject to a prohibition notice, as are the communal areas of the building at 190 Rathmines Road Lower. 

When a prohibition notice is issued, it means that the current renters in a flat can stay, but the landlord isn’t allowed to re-rent their homes if they move out. 

Living in the property wasn’t good for Hill, she says. She was living on her nerves, she said. 

But neither is being homeless again. “It’s really, really affecting me,” she says. “I need stability to progress.”

The HAP dilemma

A prohibition notice only follows an improvement letter, and an improvement notice, asking a landlord to carry out works.

Still, councils can be reluctant to pursue landlords receiving HAP through the inspections and follow-up steps to enforce minimum standards, notes a report into the scheme from the Ombudsman in June.

Because of the risk of the tenant losing their home, the report says.

At the Dublin City Council meeting, McNally, the environmental health officer, said that a prohibition notice wouldn’t affect any other tenancies. “It’s not allowed to,” she said.

But it does affect whether a tenant can get HAP to help pay their rent. “It’s a condition of HAP that the property has to be compliant.”

So 13 weeks after a prohibition notice is issued, if the work hasn’t been done the council cuts the HAP payment, she said. 

(Renters on licences are also at risk of being forced out, if they press for better maintenance though the council’s process.)

Doolan, the Sinn Féin councillor, says that two of his constituents who were HAP tenants reported substandard accommodation, and then ended up losing their homes. 

He couldn’t believe how unfair that was, he says. 

One woman had been homeless before. “She was distraught, heartbroken, going back into homelessness,” said Doolan by phone on Wednesday. 

Councillors face a real dilemma when advising constituents, he said at the housing committee meeting. “We have to put the cards on the table and say that you could end up homeless here.” 

While a landlord is not allowed to relet a home once a prohibition notice is issued, they still do sometimes, says Doolan. 

Doolan’s concerns were echoed by other councillors. 

Right to Change Councillor Pat Dunne said that a small number of landlords are using the inspection system to evict tenants faster – rather than issuing notices to quit and giving months of notice.

“Landlords understand that they can use this system as a quicker way of getting rid of a tenant,” he said. 

Green Party Councillor Donna Cooney said that some tenants are afraid to make complaints to Dublin City Council in case they lose their homes. Fines are too low to deter bad behaviour, she said.

McNally said that the council pursued legal action in two cases last year.

One of those was a landlord of a house in Kimmage who didn’t engage with the council at all. So in 2024, the council brought him to court, she said, and he was convicted of failing to comply with an improvement notice and fined €750. 

Later, a prohibition notice was issued, but the llandlord re-rented the property – and the council found out and prosecuted him for that, McNally said. 

The landlord failed to come to court or send representation, and the judge issued a bench warrant for his arrest in June 2025, said McNally. 

What is the solution?

Hill, who had to leave her flat in Rathmines, says she thinks the system is particularly unfair on those who have already been through homelessness. 

The council should do more to help her in the circumstances, she says. 

The Ombudsman, in his investigation of the HAP scheme, said that councils should consider prioritising those HAP tenants who are displaced by a prohibition notice, or living in unhealthy and unsafe conditions, for permanent social homes. 

But many high-need groups are competing for priority for social homes. 

Last year, Sinn Féin TD and housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin said that a standards certification system should be introduced for all rental properties which applies before a property is rented out. 

Social Democrats TD Cian O’Callaghan said that local authorities should be given powers to compulsorily purchase substandard properties, so they can repair them and keep tenants in their homes.

Cooney, the Green Party councillor, said at the council’s housing committee meeting that in cases where the landlord doesn’t do the repairs, there should be a process whereby the council does the work and then bills the landlord.

Doolan, the Sinn Féin councillor, says that whether to change the system is a political choice. 

“The tenant needs to be provided with alternative accommodation and they get to move back into that property,” he says. “It’s not rocket science, if there is a political will, it can be done.”