Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Ms Faughnan is not here to defend Government policy as the Department of Social Protection simply deals with the issues we have raised. The Government instructs the Department to change things. I welcome the increase in rent supplement payments as it has been a huge issue which we have been raising for a long time. It grates on me, however, that more money is going into landlords' pockets at taxpayers' expense, which places a question mark against policy in the State rather than the Department.

Top-up payments are a serious issue that does not seem to have been addressed. If somebody tells us a landlord wants to increase the rent, we advise him or her to get a letter from the landlord stating this and to take it to Threshold or the community welfare officer, but that does not happen as landlords do not want to declare rent increases to Revenue. We have to treat this issue seriously, but I do not know what to advise. Perhaps there might be an amnesty, a period in which we could clear these matters from the decks. If we do nothing, we could be waiting for another year until the next review of the two-year rent limits is carried out, at which point more money will be needed for exceptional payments. Every landlord will increase the rent at the end of the two year period, possibly significantly; therefore, what can the Department do to address the issue? It will remain as no tenants and landlords will come forward to do something that will have implications for Revenue.

Ms Faughnan said rent supplement recipients will move to the HAP scheme and that the RAS will peter out. That will not make any difference to the amount the Department will pay out in rent payments and the amount may even be more. Therefore, the statement that rent supplement is only a short-term measure misses the point. The housing action programme will I hope increase the number of private landlords with property to rent, but this means that the Department of Social Protection will have to spend more money in the future. We are not seeing a significant increase in local authority housing. I put a question to the Minister, Deputy Simon Coveney, a couple of weeks ago and he said the programme for Government allowed for a 70:30 ratio between rent supplement and housing assistance payments, on the one hand, and the building of local authority housing, on the other. That is absolutely mad and the Department will have to deal with the issue. It will put huge pressure on the Department and the taxpayers' money it spends.

In the past month we have heard of people who are entitled to rent supplement viewing rented property where the rent was €1,200 but the landlord wanted a deposit of €3,600. There is no way anybody on social welfare payments or a working class family would be able to pay that amount. but it is a practice that seems to be creeping in that landlords cannot refuse those in receipt of social welfare or rent supplement payments. Is the Department aware of this? It should watch out for it as it is going to feature more and more and will force more people back into homelessness.