Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

As both Deputies implied and as I have been saying, we are trying to strike a balance between the rights and responsibilities of both the tenant and the landlord. That is essentially the purpose of the amendment.

To answer Deputy Dessie Ellis's question on a tenant who is not paying, where a landlord is not carrying out certain maintenance work, a tenant has a legitimate reason to go to the PRTB. The amendment does not affect the hearing on the main issue of complaint. The issue of the tenant having to pay the rent is being dealt with in the legislation. Irrespective of the duration of the dispute, one should be paying one's rent until the matter is resolved. That is the purpose of the provision.

The general issues raised by Deputy Catherine Murphy are of concern to us all. They have been raised many times in making reference to rent supplement, caps and the fact that people top up, although they should not or should not have to.

The Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton, is carrying out a review of rent caps. This is not my area of responsibility. The review will probably be published very soon. One will be aware that we are planning to transfer the long-term rent supplement scheme to the local authorities through the housing assistance payment scheme. This will address the issue of affordability. There will be a much more satisfactory arrangement for the people concerned. In effect, they will be paying differential rent on the basis of their income and will not face all of the poverty traps and issues that arise with regard to rent supplement. There will still be rent supplement for those who need it urgently in the shorter term. Anyone who is on a housing list for a reasonable length of time and whose needs are more long term will be transferred to the local authority system in the next year and a half approximately. This is the time it will take to introduce the system gradually throughout the country. This issue is somewhat separate from the one we are discussing, namely, the time it takes to get on the local authority housing list and receive rent supplement. However, the matter certainly needs to be addressed.