Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We intend to expand the rent-a-room scheme to people in social housing who are social housing tenants. There are some criteria and we are working through them. It is a decision the Government made. We want to ensure that the income will be disregarded from any social welfare entitlement that people may have. Not every tenant will have a social welfare entitlement. This is the intention and we are working through it with the CCMA to see what the exact focus will be. It is not a tenancy but renting a room. As anyone who owns their own home can avail of the scheme, we also want to social housing tenants to be able to avail of it. There are some complexities. If there is one person living in a three-bedroom home, that person might want to move to other social housing property of a different size. We have seen this being done quite successfully in some areas. It would mean that a three-bedroom property would be freed up by someone moving to a smaller property. If that person is renting a room with a tenant in it, the move might be slowed up.