Ms Anne Cronin:

I agree with the Deputy that the issue of children in schools is one of the biggest difficulties experienced by families in rural areas when they try to access services. We have a couple of tenancy sustainment services. We have one in west Cork and one in Limerick. This issue comes up quite frequently when offers of housing are made. It is a legitimate concern for families. Our services certainly support families when they make the point that offers of housing need to facilitate children in staying in their existing schools. We often support families when they are making decisions in this regard. When family life is in a state of flux, it is important to maintain constant things like being able to go to the same school with the same group of friends and the same teachers. Such vital things keep families together and give children a sense of security. The Deputy has made a valid point. Our tenancy sustainment services often encounter this issue when they are trying to support families.

I would be concerned about a return to bedsits. There is an idea that by their very nature, they tend to offer a small and very inappropriate type of accommodation. Across our urban centres, there are many old and run-down pockets of accommodation which were formerly offered to people as bedsits I do not think it would be ideal to go back to that model. We certainly need something to replace this form of accommodation, however. We have an absolute dearth of one-bedroom units and one-bedroom houses because the bedsits were put out of action. We absolutely need one-bedroom units so that we can make them available to single people. Like other organisations, in the meantime we are asking for two-bedroom units to be used. We want it to be possible for single people to be placed in two-bedroom units, with the gap in the market rent being supported by the local authority. It is one of the most feasible solutions we can come up with. There seems to be some availability of two-bedroom houses and other two-bedroom units. It depends on the urban centre in which one is working.

If such accommodation is available and given that we tend to place single people, it is obvious that we will avail of two-bedroom units and somehow make up the shortfall.

On the housing assistance payment, HAP, the position varies from area to area. In west Cork, for example, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find landlords who are willing to engage with the scheme, regardless of the type of incentive they are offered. In Limerick more than 1,000 people are in receipt of a housing assistance payment. The rent supplement scheme is no longer available to new applicants in the city who are directed instead towards the HAP scheme. While the housing assistance payment is welcome, the issue is the availability of private rented accommodation because the scheme will only work if such accommodation is available and recipients are able to access it.