Ms Helen Faughnan:

I thank the committee for the opportunity to appear before it. I am accompanied by Ms Jackie Harrington, who has policy responsibility for rent supplement, and Mr. Carl O'Rourke, who is head of the homeless persons unit and the asylum seekers and new communities unit in Dublin.

The Department recognises that homelessness is one of the most visible and distressing signs of the social impact of the crisis that has hit Ireland since 2008. The Department fully acknowledges the difficulties that people are experiencing, including rent supplement recipients, in maintaining suitable affordable accommodation in the current market, most notably in the urban areas where supply is most acute. In response to these difficulties, the Department has put in place a number of preventative measures to ensure that people at risk of homelessness or loss of their tenancy are supported under the rent supplement scheme where increased rental payments are required. These measures are kept under constant review in the light of vital feedback which we receive, especially from the non-governmental organisations and Oireachtas Members. We are operating an individual case management approach which I will explain shortly. However, this can only work well when those who need the services are aware of what is available and how to access it.

The purpose of the rent supplement scheme is to provide short-term income support to people living in private rented accommodation whose means are insufficient to meet their accommodation costs and who do not have accommodation available to them from any other source. The Government has provided over €298 million for the scheme this year. There are currently approximately 68,000 rent supplement recipients, of whom almost 5,700 have been awarded the rent supplement this year to date.

In March last, the Department published a review of the maximum rent limits under the scheme. The review finds that increasing rent limits at this time could potentially add to further rental inflation in an already distressed market, affecting not only rent supplement recipients but also lower-income workers and students. Between the rent supplement scheme administered by the Department and the rental accommodation scheme administered by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, the State accounts for a third of the private rented market. It is therefore a very significant player in the sector.

Fundamentally, the main cause of rising rents is a lack of supply in the market, and increasing the prescribed rent limits will not address this issue. The primary responsibility for provision of accommodation for homeless persons rests with local authorities. The implementation of the range of actions under the Construction 2020 strategy and the social housing strategy will support increased housing supply, but Government recognises that there is a time-lag in the provision of new stock. It is also understood that the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government intends to bring proposals in respect of rent certainty to the Government shortly.

Rather than providing for a blanket increase on rent limits, which will not address the issue, the Department’s preventative policy allows for flexibility in assessing customers’ individual accommodation needs through the national tenancy sustainment framework. Under this approach, each tenant’s circumstances are considered on a case-by-case basis, and rents are being increased above prescribed limits as appropriate. Staff in the community welfare service of the Department who administer the rent supplement scheme have a statutory discretionary power to award or increase a supplement for rental purposes, for example, when dealing with applicants who are risk of losing their tenancy or in danger of homelessness. This flexible approach has already assisted over 2,000 rent supplement households throughout the country to retain their rented accommodation. The Department is also undertaking measures to ensure that cases are considered throughout the country in a consistent manner.

In addition, the Department, in conjunction with Threshold, operates a special protocol in the Dublin and Cork areas where the level of supply is particularly acute. The primary objective of the protocol is to ensure a speedy intervention to ensure that families at immediate risk of losing their tenancy get rapid assistance. Of the 2,000 households I mentioned earlier, over 660 Dublin households and some 20 in Cork received support through increased rental payments as a direct result of engagement under the protocol.

The Department also provides support to persons towards rent deposits and rent in advance under the exceptional needs payments, ENPs, scheme. This form of assistance is very important to those on low incomes who rely on the private rental market to meet their housing needs. Last year, almost 3,000 payments were made towards rent deposits, at a cost of almost €1.5 million. Some 1,000 payments have been made in 2015 to date.

A communication campaign has been put in place to increase the level of public awareness of the supports available from the Department.

It should be noted that in many homeless cases, highlighted in the media, rent supplement recipients had vacated their accommodation without having discussed their situation with Department officials. This information campaign seeks to address this issue and to encourage people at risk to contact the Department, Threshold, or the various non-governmental organisations that are represented here today as early as possible to prevent an unnecessary episode of homelessness.

The Department’s website and that of the Citizens Information Service have been recently updated. In April this year the Department issued text messages to more than 50,000 rent supplement recipients advising of the supports available. Tweets are issuing to departmental followers on a monthly basis. A national poster campaign is also under way and posters have been distributed to all our departmental offices, post offices, citizen information centres, Money Advice and Budgeting Service offices and to Oireachtas Members. The Department is considering further circulation of this information to include local authorities, libraries and credit unions.

The community welfare service, including through its work in the Homeless Persons Unit and the Asylum Seekers and New Communities Unit, works closely with local authorities, homeless action teams and other stakeholders, including the non-governmental organisations, to facilitate homeless persons to access private rented accommodation. This level of inter-agency participation ensures greater integration between the key agencies involved in the area of homelessness and related services. In addition, the Department is represented on the homelessness policy implementation team, led by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, to oversee the implementation of the homelessness action plan.

The Government has effectively two initiatives to deal with long-term reliance on rent supplement - the rental accommodation scheme, RAS, which has been in operation since 2004 and the more recent housing assistance payment, HAP, which is currently being rolled out to eight local authority areas. To date, HAP has provided support to approximately 2,140 tenants. In the first quarter of this year, more than 770 rent supplement tenants have transferred to RAS and other social housing options. Both initiatives give the local authorities specific responsibility for meeting the long-term housing needs of people receiving rent supplement. When HAP is fully in place, rent supplement will continue to be paid to clients who are already in the private rented sector but who, generally because of a loss of income through unemployment, require short-term income support in order to pay their rent. Rent supplement will, therefore, over time, return to its original purpose of being a short-term payment.

I want to assure the committee that the Department continues to monitor the measures in place to ensure that the appropriate supports continue to be provided for rent supplement recipients. I wish to advise that a departmental briefing on the flexibility provided under rent supplement has been arranged for Oireachtas Members tomorrow afternoon in order that as many people as possible are aware of the Department’s position and can advise people locally. If it would be helpful, I can give the committee information on the number of supports in place at a local level.

Overall, the response to the current extremely difficult housing situation must be multifaceted and the arrangements put in place need not only to meet the immediate need but to be sustainable for the future. I trust the presentation is of assistance to the committee and I am happy to discuss any issues raised or proposals made.