Ms Jackie Harrington:

As I said in my opening statement, we are examining cases on a case-by-case basis. I am advised from statistics provided by the Department of Justice and Equality that once people are granted status, almost 60% have left the centres within three months and approximately 85% have left within about six months. There are a number of reasons for that. People might want to stay in the centres while their children are at school, they are linking to school terms and so on. In respect of rent supplement, our community welfare services engages with individuals and we do provide increased payments. At this point in time, we have provided excess payments in 4,900 cases. We also operate a special protocol with Threshold in the Dublin area and Cork city where supply issues are particularly acute. Under this process, an individual contacts Threshold directly which will provide support, including engagement with the landlord, the PRTB if there is some kind of dispute and the Department if it is felt that an increase is required under the rent supplement scheme. As I said, we have already increased 4,900 payments and under the threshold specifically, that accounts for about 1,500 of the 4,900.

We pay rent deposits and rent in arrears under the exceptional needs payments scheme. To date, we have issued over 2,100 payments for rent deposit to the tune of approximately €1 million so we are assisting people. In the context of the information groups I referred to that came out of the transitional task force, staff actually engaged with residents from eight centres through six information sessions. They were attended by representatives from our Department, the local authorities, the Citizens Information Board, MABS and the HSE. We provided information on the next steps and engaging with our office to seek assistance towards rent deposits. We are out there and are providing support and we want people to come to us about rent supplement.

I also spoke about HAP, which is a new payment administered by the local authority. To date, it has been rolled out in 18 local authorities.

Under the housing assistance payment, HAP, scheme, new applicants actually qualify for the payment as opposed to rent supplement. In some areas it is the local authority which provides support for the individual in the private rented sector, while in others, it is the Department of Social Protection.