Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We need to look at the reality of what will happen when the 80,000 people who are on rent supplement are moved and differentiated. The good and normal people who are on that scheme will be moved on because it will be easy to accommodate them. The Department will be left with the cohort I am talking about. They will be left on the former rent supplement scheme unless the Department provides for certain controls, for example, by holding over or withdrawing the rent supplement. I accept that the Department does that on some occasions. When that happens, the tenant and the landlord should be pulled in and the Garda reports should be taken into account. People are perfectly entitled to stay on so long as they behave by normal standards, but that is not what is happening. Can I take it that the Department will look at that? The housing assistance payments scheme, which is a variation on the rental assistance scheme, will end up being taken over and looked after by the local authorities, rather than by the Department. I am talking about now. I would have thought that the Department, rather than saying there is nothing it can do about this matter, would have the wherewithal to issue a directive at local level to ensure it is taken seriously.