Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank IPAV for its presentation. I concur with much of what has been said and on the initiatives IPAV would like to see in place in order to revitalise the sector and help those who cannot get onto the property ladder.

Deputy Funchion asked a question about the rental sector, but I did not hear an answer to it. The question concerns the rental sector and landlords. I understand IPAV represents many of them but that it cannot speak for all of them. As public representatives, we hear all too often that landlords will not accept tenants on rent supplement or in HAP programmes. The immediacy of the current problem is such that it is dependent on and expects that the Government will increase rent supplement, which needs to be increased in an abnormal market. That is my contention and I have the support of many on this, including stakeholders at the coalface. Rent supplement needs to be reviewed on an ongoing basis to ensure it has the desired effect while the short, medium and long-term issues in regard to supply are being addressed. That is the reason this committee wants to make recommendations in that regard. It wants to ensure all-party agreement and in the context of the new Dáil and numbers game, we hope to achieve that.

This begs the question as to whether if that improvement is made, IPAV can give us an assurance as public representatives that we will not continue to hear the complaint of the failure to accept rent supplement from those we have the privilege to represent and are trying to assist.

It is soul destroying and sickening to listen to the stories of people who are exasperated, who are on the brink financially and who have huge social issues as a result. We hear them say that the private sector - the landlords - will not accept rent allowance supports and yet here we are on the cusp of improving that funding stream. Can the IPAV representatives give any commitment today that their organisation will seek to have that situation addressed? We see increased funding to that area in the short term but what other measures can help the supply issue?