Robert Dowds (Dublin Mid West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will ask about rent allowance for people on the housing list. I appreciate it is not dealt with in particular in the information we received over the week but it has come under the remit of the Department from the Department of Health. There are a number of concerns and I would appreciate if the witness could respond to them.

Does the Department see itself as just the instrument for paying out these sums of money to people on the housing list in private rented accommodation or is there any sense of a need to take an active interest in the process? For example, does it consider whether private landlords are offering a house fit for living in or in seeing how the tenants behave? Does the Department simply act as a paymaster and should the area be covered with a responsibility on local authorities?