Mr. Tom McHugh:

I wish to echo the point made by Mr. Pat Doyle on the need for a housing strategy. Our submission to the joint committee has identified a number of possible solutions or assists towards solutions in providing a more strategic and integrated approach to the entire issue including all stakeholders, which includes the voluntary housing bodies, the local authorities and the financial institutions. In respect of rents, rent caps, the rental accommodation scheme, RAS, and so on, Mr. Pat Doyle's reference to some level of indexation whereby rents would not be increased without regard to some measurement makes sense. To what it is indexed would have to be teased out and that probably is a longer-term solution because I cannot envisage such a regulation being introduced in the short term. There is a difficulty at present in respect of rent caps, competition between local authorities and people trying to obtain private rented accommodation but as I have said a few times in the past, the problem at present is the supply simply is not there. If that supply is not there at a time when people are trying to obtain private rented accommodation and the local authority is trying to enter into leasing and RAS arrangements, then this competition arises. The local authority is not subject to the rent caps on rent supplement. Ours is based on market value or a discounted rate on the market value that exists at the moment.