Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 26 May 2016
Committee on Housing and Homelessness
Focus Ireland
10:30 am
Mr. Ashley Balbirnie:
I will take the rent supplement question first because this is a subject close to our heart. I know there are two lines of thought on this. At the end of the day, rent supplement is a mechanism which people clearly think has a place in the system. The last increase in rent supplement was in June 2013. Rents have gone up in the region of 35% - certainly in the Dublin area - in the meantime. If rent supplement has a role to play, the amount of the supplement obviously must relate to what the market rent is. It is unfortunate that there has been such a time lag and that such a gap has built up because we now cannot be as positive as we would like to be about the 15% increase being talked about at the moment. It is necessary and a good thing, as far as we are concerned, but a hell of a gap has opened up.
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