Dr. Barra Roantree:

I will respond to Senator Boyhan's question about differential rent schemes. They vary hugely across local authorities, both in terms of the minimum and maximum rent they pay, whether it is capped and how fast any income is means-tested to determine people's rent contribution. Some local authorities even take into account the definition of that income, including the artist formerly known as family income supplement, now known as the working family payment. Some do not take that into account. There is large amount of variation. I highlighted in the opening statement that under HAP these schemes will be used to determine how much HAP claimants renting in the private rental market will pay. The levels of support for a national scheme will vary hugely for families with identical circumstances in different areas. It is a separate matter, in a way, from the issue of differential rents for local authority tenants in that this is very much a national scheme but the level of support varies in a way where it is hard to understand the policy intent.

We assessed the national differential rent scheme proposed in 2014 but it was not brought forward. There was a commitment in Rebuilding Ireland to review the differential rent schemes across local authorities by the second quarter of 2017.

That was yet to be finalised. The latest update on the Rebuilding Ireland target was that the review would be published at the end of last year. As far as I know, it is yet to be published so members may wish take up that issue. Fundamentally, the issue of the subsidy that people at different income levels should get is a political matter and not one on which we can provide input. Using a unified national differential rent scheme for HAP makes sense. That can be designed such that the rent that people pay rises with their income up to the point at which they start to pay the market rent for the property they are renting. It is an issue for politicians to decide what income level is appropriate to what rent.

I acknowledge that, while one could design a national differential rent scheme that is only used for HAP, there is a separate issue with transitioning people who are on existing local authority leases and paying differential rents in that it would result in some winners and some losers. As such, one may wish to stagger that over a number of years. The problem will be that it will be harder to introduce a national differential rent scheme for people renting under HAP in five years, if, as the Government hopes, 80,000 people have been moved to HAP. The number of HAP tenants is not large but, for the same reason that one gets winners and losers, the more people there are on the HAP, the harder it will be to introduce such a scheme. Hopefully, that answers the Senator's question.