Ms Helen Faughnan:

Ideally, each case should be assessed on its merits to assess the circumstances of the person coming from emergency accommodation. I am meeting all of our divisional managers tomorrow and I will raise the concerns of the committee in order that the divisional managers engage with the staff, as they do, to assess the issues that are coming up. We can raise these issues.

Over the years, we were trying to protect the State, in a way, and were ensuring that landlords declared the correct payments that were supported through the rent supplement scheme. Top-ups were illegal in that case. It is the same point that Deputy Coppinger was making. If the landlord and the tenant are in collusion and it is a cash payment, it is very difficult for us to be aware of it. The clear instructions that have gone out to staff is that we want to support people. We do not want them to be topping up where it is a vital accommodation need. I appreciate that tenants may be afraid or nervous in this situation and we need to try to communicate better with some of our clients. I will circulate the contact list to the members of the committee in the first instance as well as to the other Oireachtas Members so they will have an individual point of contact in the various divisions to enable them to raise issues of concern.

In response to Deputy Coppinger's comments on the review of the rent supplement limits, I am responsible for the policy approach in that area. The main finding of our previous rent review, which we carried out early last year, was that the lack of available supply is the biggest problem. It remains the key issue of the homelessness crisis. This relates to supply across the market in general and not just in the private rental sector. The number of private rental properties is at its lowest level ever. Increasing rent limits will provide a small amount of accommodation but that is not going to solve the issues. That is why we agreed to the special protocol with Threshold last year and in mid-2014. At that time, we felt that a targeted approach was far more beneficial in terms of supporting the individual customers as well as targeting the resources that were available to where they were most at need. The big changes that have happened in terms of the rent certainty are the amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act. Rents can now only be reviewed once every two years as opposed to once every year. We will be reviewing the rent limits in that. On average, we are paying an extra 120 rental uplifts on a weekly basis. Approximately 23% of Dublin recipients are already receiving an uplift payment. In effect, the current limits are no longer sustainable. We will looking at how best to implement the commitment in the new programme for Government to spread the increase to the greatest effect.

The measures our Department can take in a housing crisis mainly relate to the financial supports that can be put in place.

The Deputy asked about the various payments that are being made in Dublin west. Uplifts are being made in the Dublin west area, at an average of approximately €850 with a range of between €650 and €1,100. Ms Tighe will give some examples of what is happening on the ground.