Ms Helen Faughnan:

We appreciate that. The difficulty is trying to prove it when the landlord and the tenant are complicit. We will take on board the Deputy's suggestion of publicising and highlighting the fact that the top-up payment is fraudulent.

Anti-social behaviour in social housing is a major problem, but the Department does not have a relationship with the landlord and tenant behaviour is a matter for the landlord in the first instance. Landlords can avail of the dispute mechanism of the Private Residential Tenancies Board and have recourse to the Garda in the matter. Again, it is imperative to move responsibility to the local authorities because they have the anti-social element built in as part of the tenancy arrangements with their tenants. The social welfare legislation provides that if the Department is notified of anti-social behaviour and the tenancy is affected, we stop the payment of rent supplement payment in these instances.

The Chairman asked about international policy, particularly in Northern Ireland. If a person decides to move into a property for which the rent is higher than the rate set, he or she pays the difference and it is a personal choice. If we were to out top-up payments, would the rent demands being made by landlords just keep rising to try to meet what we were setting? There would be a risk in doing this.

We do not source accommodation for tenants. They source it in advance of coming to us. Let me give an example. When the rent limits are reviewed and the landlord will not agree to reduce the rent, the tenant and community welfare service staff sit down and discuss the matter and try to come up with a solution. We would never make somebody homeless as a result. We work with him or her to try to come up with a solution that meets their particular needs.