Mr. Bob Jordan:

Absolutely. Rent certainty underpins everything we are talking about in terms of people's tenancies. That is a very good reason a tenancy should continue beyond the sale of a property because if it comes to an end, there is a opportunity to increase that rent to market level rent again. That is the reason having an enduring tenancy is very important.

Deputy Coppinger spoke about the proportions in terms of the sourcing of housing units. A big footnote to the social housing strategy is that most of the units will be delivered in the private rented sector. Threshold is on record as having said that we accept that one third of households will need some State support. They will be in either the social rented sector or the private rented sector and there needs to be a rebalancing of those sectors. The social rented sector comprises 9% and we have said it should be brought up to about 15%. We should at least have a 50:50 situation but it appears the private rented sector will continue to grow. Unless people can be given the kind of security, or close to it, in the private rented sector that those can be given in the social rented sector, then clearly many people do not belong there. Threshold's experience is that there are people living in the private rented sector who should not be there as they cannot cope there. Equally, there are people in the private rented sector who have legitimate aspirations to own their own home and they need to be helped as well.

The issue with overholding is that when people remain in a property beyond the end of the tenancy to some extent that is making a problem for the landlord which is really a problem for the State. That tenancy will ultimately crumble and the tenant will eventually have to find alternative accommodation. The Deputy correctly pointed out the increase in the number of overholding disputes that have gone to the Residential Tenancies Board. If a tenant has a bone fide problem with finding alternative accommodation, there needs to be a protocol between the Residential Tenancies Board and the local authority and it is the local authority's problem to find people alternative accommodation either directly or through an non-governmental organisation or whatever. The tenants should not end up in homeless services for the lack of alternative accommodation. Our experience is that where people overhold the tenancy eventually crumbles. Therefore, it is better to deal with the problem directly and it is more the State's problem than a problem for the landlord.

On the issue of top-ups, we published a report in Cork in 2005 that showed that 20% of tenants even at that time were paying top-ups in the private rented sector. The reason we have a family homelessness crisis since 2013 is that even if some tenants paid all of their welfare to a landlord they would still not be able to meet the rental payment. That is the issue. The issue has moved from one where people have been managing their own poverty for years to one where they cannot even manage their own poverty. It is Threshold's experience that tenants will go to the ends of the earth to pay their rent. They will do that above anything else, above buying food, looking after their children or going to the general practitioner when they need to. Clearly, there is a crisis for them in that area that has gone out of control.

Deputy O'Sullivan made a number of remarks. When I referred to student accommodation I was clear in saying that it should be on-campus and purpose-built and that it would take students out of the mainstream market. Students require a particular type of accommodation for a particular period and it should be affordable. There is an opportunity there to do that. The section 50 tax break introduced a few years ago was one of the most successful tax breaks of all. However, in recent years on-campus accommodation has become as expensive as accommodation in town, so there is no benefit to it. Any measure introduced around student accommodation need to ensure that rent is set at an affordable level for students and their parents.

Preventing people from becoming homeless is not only about protocol, although it is mostly about that. We negotiate with landlords and when we explain a tenant's position some landlords are willing to leave the rent the same. That must be acknowledged. In some cases where landlords issue a valid notice of termination, we can buy the tenant extra time to find an alternative accommodation. Some tenants have got local authority accommodation along the way. One thing that is clear form this service, and it is a second best option, is that if people are given more money under rent supplement, they do not become homeless in the main. This raises the question as to why not provide for this across the board.

One of the issues concerning the rent supplement scheme, which has been mentioned widely, is that if one increases rent supplement across the board, one just inflates rents for everybody.

The problem with the rent supplement scheme at present is that it is a bit of a blunt instrument. Essentially, there is more or less one rate for all of Dublin. All of us here know that rents are very different within different sub-markets in Dublin. The PRTB rent index is accurate to a level of 30 properties. We need to make sure that rent limits are not as visible to landlords. It is none of landlords' business where tenants get their money from or how much they get. It needs to be much more invisible to the landlord how much support a tenant is getting so we can get the best value in the market.

We have asked in the past why the Department of Social Protection should not just bargain directly with landlords and get a good deal. There are many landlords who are making significant money from the rent supplement scheme. Why not have some economies of scale in this regard?

With regard to people being afraid to complain, the Deputy is absolutely correct. People are afraid to make contact with their landlord in any way at all. That is why organisations such as ours are really important. The proof of this is that one of the biggest issues we are still dealing with is substandard accommodation in the private rental sector. Not carrying out repairs is an issue. In this regard, 1,800 people came to us in 2014 and 1,400 came to us in 2015. That is really the tip of the iceberg.

Much has been said about people moving outside Dublin. For some who have tried this, it has worked but it has not for many. The reason it has not worked is because they have moved too far away from their family support networks. The Deputy knows better than I do that if one does not have the support of one's extended family, it does not quite work out. One needs to be very careful about a rural resettlement scheme.

Deputy Coppinger asked about the commercial sector. Her question was very good. The point about the commercial sector is that there are long-term leases. A property may be sold but the tenant might have a 35-year lease, for example. In the private rental sector, there are no 35-year leases anymore. However, if we gave people indefinite security of tenure and the right to remain in the property after its sale, the arrangement would be something of the equivalent of that in the commercial sector.

I cannot tell the committee how one could drive down rents in the private rental sector by any measure other than increasing supply at the moment. It is a very tricky issue that, dare I say, would lead to constitutional problems. It is probably the one issue that would. If all these other measures were implemented, circumstances would improve considerably for people.

With regard to the homelessness problem, there is considerable focus on the provision of emergency accommodation. That prevents people from being on the streets but the rebalancing regarding homelessness needs to focus on preventing people from becoming homeless at all costs and moving people as quickly as possible out of homelessness. The Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Simon Coveney, has increased the number of rapid-build units from 500 to 1,000 but the number obviously needs to be much higher. However, the relentless focus should be on preventing people from becoming homeless and on moving them on. Otherwise, the number in emergency accommodation will only continue to grow.