Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have no doubt about that. A detailed report is available on HAP and how it has been operating in different local authorities. I hope it is helpful in terms of understanding its uptake, the different discretions that are given, the percentage of discretions above the existing rents, and how that is being implemented.

The issue of two months deposit came up over the summer, and at the time I said that we would bring in legislation to prevent that from happening if it was seen to be the case. I consulted with the Residential Tenancies Board at the time, which said that it was not aware that this was happening and that it had received no complaints about it. I am not aware that it is an actual issue in the market at the moment. One month is absolutely sufficient. It is the practice, and if we have to establish that in law as the practice, we will do so.

The deposit under the homeless HAP is there to assist families. If an individual applies, the deposit will be sourced using Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection officers. I understand the point the Senator made about people being confused as to where they are supposed to go or how they are supposed to get the supports because there is no single point of contact. The place finder person is supposed to work in that area to help those people, and it is their responsibility to get them to the right person. We are rolling out the place finder programme nationally, and local authorities are taking that on board because they believe it is a resource they need.

If there are problems around individual cases, we can talk about them offline. It helps in getting them resolved, but it also helps us to get a better understanding nationally of how housing measures are being interpreted at a local level.

On the staffing of local authorities, it is picking up, but it needs to increase more quickly. Over the past two years, local authorities have been increasing their staff numbers. At the housing summit on Monday, we made a commitment to local authorities on the build side that more staff required on that side could be hired and that those costs could be recouped in the budget line through the Department to make sure they had enough people on the ground, whether in design, driving projects or otherwise. They will work with the increased number of staff that we have in the Department.

What will be repaired by the local authorities is not consistent from area to area, and we heard from the Senator's colleague on the committee about one of the approaches that Dún Laoghaire takes.

It is important when we talk about what a tenant is paying in rent that we discuss what that rent gets them in so far as the landlord's responsibilities are concerned. Again, this comes under the review of differential rents. Everybody should be clear what their rights and responsibilities are. I have seen some cases in the newspapers recently, one of which was mentioned by the Senator as an example. We are doing a piece of work in the Department currently which will provide greater clarity to local authorities as to what exactly is to be included and what is not. However, I do not want to remove flexibility where a local authority wants to go a bit further and then create an additional charge for tenants.

On the review of the tenant purchase scheme, I understand how people are getting caught. Some people are also taking advantage of it, however.