Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

—about the fact that landlords increase rents on the assumption that the health boards and the Department of Social and Family Affairs will increase maximum contributions. We cannot allow the increases that have been taking place in recent years to continue.

We have to examine the morality of the fact that many people have to live in totally unsuitable private rented accommodation, especially as many landlords who provide improper facilities receive a great deal of money from the Department. Officials from my Department, with the Minister for the Environment and Local Government, Deputy Cullen, and the Minister of State, Deputy Noel Ahern, are working to see how housing standards can be improved. In that context, the supplementary welfare allowance scheme is being reviewed and I have asked the chief executives of the health boards to meet me early next year to discuss the administration of the scheme.