Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I agree in general with local authorities taking over the responsibility for rent supplement in the form of the HAP. However, once again we are moving to a system where the tenant or person receiving the assistance must source the accommodation and the local authority will have no role in sourcing places. Will Minister of State clarify this? It seems to me that this is no different from what existed already. If people wanted rent supplement, they had to source accommodation themselves. Therefore, while the provision of assistance is being passed over to the local authorities, we are once again putting tenants in a position where they must chase after landlords. This is an impossible situation. Surely, local authorities should play some role in leveraging pressure in the context of getting accommodation. At least, it should have a list or some mechanism to source accommodation. This is the problem I see with this.