Mr. Bob Jordan:

Other countries have used the tax system to attract social landlords. The issue has been that a certain type of landlord has specialised in the rent supplement market, and these are not always the most desirable landlords but those with houses of flats and bedsits. Now that the market has changed, landlords have turned away from rent supplement because of how the scheme has been administered. To some extent, the Department of Social Protection has asked tenants to break the law and break their leases. It annoys people in Threshold that the Department of Social Protection asks tenants to provide leases in order to prove that they have bona fide tenancies, although one does not need a lease to live in the private rented sector.

However, the Department then turns around later and tells them to break the lease in order to seek a rental reduction with the landlord. This is what has alienated landlords from the rent supplement scheme - good landlords in many respects - who were willing to take that payment. Unfortunately, if we are to attract them back into dealing with State social housing supports, we cannot merely increase rents to chase the market but also must provide some incentive, for a limited time perhaps or to keep it under review, to attract them in for social housing purposes. They are in it to make a profit and are not operating on behalf of the State.