Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want to follow up on a matter in this morning’s discussion that both Deputy Catherine Murphy and I touched on, namely, the value for money of the housing assistance payment, HAP, and the rental accommodation scheme, RAS. There was extensive engagement on these this morning but this committee could probably do work on value for money and the procurement element. It was very clear from the conversation this morning that the policy was of its time, in part. It is very clear that there is poor value for money. Also, the most vulnerable people in society are effectively procuring billions of euro in State spending because it is the individual person who procures it. There is obviously an impact on the market as well. We could devote a little time to this matter, which represents a portion of the work the Department does. We could have a very good report on it and we might be able to get something out the other side. I do not know where this fits into our overall work programme, but there was cross-committee interest in the matter today. This might be something we could work with.