Brendan Ryan (Dublin North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Faughnan and her team for their presentation. I add my voice to those who said the caps are too low. The average rent in Fingal, which I represent, is €1,200 for two to three-bedroom homes, which is well in excess of the cap of €775 for a one-parent family or a couple with one child and €825 for a one-parent family or a couple with two children. The gap is too great.

The other factor in relation to Fingal is that caps are €100 lower than in other parts of Dublin city. The idea that one can find rental accommodation in places such as Swords, Malahide, Dunabate, and Skerries for €100 less than in other parts of Dublin city is erroneous. That should be factored in in the departmental review. The cap reduction was well intentioned at the time, but the lowering has not resulted in a reduction of rents in recent years. In 2012 rents were up 5% in the Dublin area and are projected to rise further this year. They have remained high owing to demand among a particular demographic, young working couples and families who traditionally would have been buying their homes but are not doing so in the current economic climate.

A serious issue arises from the high demand for the limited supply of rental properties. It is a landlord's market. Given the demand for rental properties among working families, landlords are in a position to decide not to rent their properties to rent supplement recipients. That is a serious issue and it is becoming increasingly common to see "no rent supplement" attached to many advertisements for rental properties. I have tested this by visiting letting agents in Swords and elsewhere in my constituency. Landlords are specifying that they want to rent their properties but not to persons in receipt of rent supplement. People who, through no fault of their own, are in receipt of rent supplement are being pushed into areas in which they may not like to live as their children are in schools in other areas. They may be forced to live in another part of the constituency in which they do not have supports and must then look for school places for children who are already attending school.

Rent supplement recipients get very little support from the Department and are left to their own devices in negotiations with landlords. I do not know whether anything can be done about this, but I ask the officials to factor this in to the review. Very often families such as single parent families, those without too many supports around them or other vulnerable families must negotiate individually with landlords. Negotiating with landlords is a major issue for them and it leaves them open to being pressurised by landlords to make off-the-book payments. Others have mentioned such payments and I believe a significant percentage of people in receipt of rent supplement make top-up payments. Being vulnerable they are forced to do so because they believe they have no option but to pay. At one level - I hope this is not the case - the Department could be happy that if rents are higher than the cap, other family members are forced to support them, which should not be the case.