Mr. Eugene Cummins:

It is a question that we deal with on a continual basis. One of the points I made in the presentation was that caution is needed in helping owners with mortgage repayments or renters with rent. As it is such a tight supply and demand market at the moment, if we interfere in the market we will make it worse and we will drive rents up across the country and actually make it worse.

I would not be in favour of a broad increase for that reason because it would make it worse for a broader reach of people. Again, the landlords would be the winners and the potential tenants would be the losers. There is a targeted approach and it has success. Mr. Morgan might come in on that later on. It is specifically targeted where people are in danger of becoming homeless. That was the primary reason it was introduced and it has worked very successfully.

In terms of legislation and interventions that might be made, there is one problem we have as local authorities. I say this with all due respect to all the tenants who work, as we do, to the legislation that is there. It is very frustrating for us, as local authorities and housing authorities, that when we make a house available to someone, they say they do not want it there because it is not where they wanted. On the issue of choice, one would imagine that people in their need to have a house and a home would take a house and a home anywhere within reason and certainly within the county. That is a major issue in terms of refusal after refusal. One of the reasons it can take so long to let a property is that having gone through the process, the prospective tenant does not want it and we have go through it all again. The constant refusal is a major problem for us. As some of the members here today have said, if a house was not available in Dublin, why would someone not come down to Roscommon? Something might be done in terms of limiting the choices to the county. When I worked in Galway, people had a multiplicity of choices, which did not help things.

I ask Mr. Morgan to come back in regarding the-----