Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Faughnan very much indeed for her presentation. The accompanying statistical information was also very interesting.

I welcome the Government's decision, under the bilateral arrangement entered into with my party, to increase the limits for HAP and rent supplement. We have had this problem for a while. The limits were capped four or five years ago, yet rents kept gradually increasing. We were told on numerous occasions that there was no point in doing something like this because it would only increase rents and would not provide any extra houses. However, rent control, which everybody seems to be in favour of, does not provide any extra houses either. I have seen no economic advice as to how exactly this increase will drive up rents. The whole point of promoting this exercise is that while it does not increase the number of houses, it does help to stop people slipping into homelessness.

I would like to ask Ms Faughnan a few questions on her presentation. The new limits apply to people who are entering the system from here on in. I am a bit confused about the position of existing people. I think Ms Faughnan said that their situation would be taken care of when there is a review. She seemed to suggest that they can request a review on their own initiative. I have had a number of queries since these changes were announced and that seems to be contrary to what people are being told. Existing HAP and rent supplement clients are being told that the new system will only come into place for them when an actual review is taking place. Nobody is being informed about their right to seek a review, so I require some clarity on that.

Ms Faughnan's Department is inviting people who are in informal top-up arrangements. I take it she is talking about people who could not rent a property under the cap limit, so they had to pay more but pretend that they were only paying up to the cap level. We have numerous examples of those. They are being asked to come forward now, so will there be some sort of amnesty for them? Will there be any repercussions, since it could be said that they misled the Department in the past? I want to ensure they are quite safe in coming forward.

A couple of years ago, the previous Minister informed me about the introduction of flexibility, but there is always a problem with it. In theory, I suppose it is better to be flexible in these matters when the local social welfare officer looks at each individual case. Unfortunately, however, the downside of flexibility is that it can give rise to very different results depending on whom one is dealing with and in what area of the country. For example, I notice in the statistical information Ms Faughnan circulated that discretion has been exercised 185 times in Longford last year, 348 times in County Meath, and only seven times in Limerick. There seems to be an undue amount of inflexibility in Limerick for some reason that I cannot quite fathom.

Can Ms Faughnan clarify if it is the intention that HAP will fully replace the RAS scheme? There is a transfer from RAS to HAP, so everybody will ultimately be under the HAP scheme. Ms Faughnan says the situation will be fully resolved when the other local authorities take it on, but my area is in the HAP scheme. Only a percentage - I forget what percentage - of people on RAS have been moved into the HAP scheme. When will we reach our ultimate objective to have everybody moved to the HAP scheme? When the HAP scheme is fully implemented throughout the country will rent supplement still be a feature for what are called short-term arrangements? Who defines exactly what a short-term arrangement is?