Ms Helen Faughnan:

Yes, please, that would be good. I thank the Deputy for his questions.

Let me clarify the limits. The limits apply to new people, but we have existing tenants in different circumstances. Some are in a tenancy arrangement and the rate of payment they are making is what they are declaring to us, so there is no change in their position. Depending on their lease, for example if their lease is up in the next six months and the landlord decides at that stage to put up the rent and he or she can do so, because the period since the rent was last raised is more than two years ago, the tenant will come in with the details of the new lease and the new limits will apply.

If somebody is paying an informal top up, because he or she wanted to retain his or her accommodation, I am stating clearly that we want those people to come forward. There will be no repercussions. We have a homelessness crisis at present, we do not want those people to lose their tenancy. We have been saying this to them. People were possibly afraid to come in. If somebody was paying an increase of €100 a month, he or she should come in and declare the actual payment and we will increase his or her rent supplement payment accordingly. We have spoken and briefed our divisional managers and instructions have gone out to our area managers and the community welfare service staff around the country in this regard.

That is the key message that I would like each and everyone of the members of the committee to take away today.

On the question of the flexibility of community welfare service staff, we have been grappling with this issue. A key tool the community welfare service has is discretion and flexibility. The staff are trained to engage and elicit information from customers. They come across so many diverse cases on a day by day basis where people are facing immediate issues of financial concern at any given time. This flexibility can really help in allowing people to make the payments. We have given guidance to staff. When the community welfare service was absorbed into the Department in 2011, community welfare officers had been used to operating under eight health board areas, with differences in each area. What the Department has tried to do in the intervening period is to ensure that if somebody is coming into claim in Limerick, Buncrana, New Ross or inner city Dublin, he or she will be afforded the same treatment.

The differences in terms of flexibility were raised. It is not appropriate to compare the position of rent supplement in Limerick with other counties, mainly because the HAP scheme is in place in Limerick since March 2014. Limerick was the first local authority area to pilot the scheme. In fairness the local authority deserves great credit. They have really piloted it well and have now become the hub that administers all the HAP payments for right around the country. There are currently 1,270 HAP tenancies in payment in Limerick and that exceeds the number of rent supplement claimants which is about 1,180. The balance has shifted from rent supplement to HAP, so that if somebody has a housing need in Limerick, HAP is the appropriate way for them to go, particularly if they have a long-term housing need. Over time HAP will replace the majority of the claimants of rent supplement. Rent supplement will return to what it was originally intended to be, a supplement for people who have a short-term housing need, namely people in rented accommodation who are paying their rent and are working but for some reason lose their job. We will be there to provide financial support on a short-term basis to let them retain that tenancy. Generally we refer to short term as a period under 18 months. The plan is that tenants in receipt of rent supplement for a period of more than 18 months will in time be transferred to the new housing assistance payment, HAP.

I was asked how many of the 1,270 HAP tenancies have come from rent supplement. It is approximately 41%, about 520 have moved from rent supplement to HAP to date. Our staff and the local authority staff are working together to continue that transfer. What will help is that HAP payment in Limerick can go above the rent supplement limits. They have the flexibility to go above 20% in the local authority area, so that will help the transfer.

RAS, the rental accommodation scheme is still supporting a large number of people, some 32,710 people are in receipt of the rental accommodation scheme payment. I suppose that scheme will wither over time and HAP will replace it. Many local authorities operating HAP are still operating the rental accommodation scheme in their areas, where they have direct engagement with the landlords and it seems to be working well. I would envisage that until we are out of the homelessness crisis those different tools will continue to be in operation.

On the question of the increased rent limits, increasing the rent limits will not tackle the supply issue and that is still of major concern. What has been happening is that the flexible approach we had adopted in the past 18 months or so, has helped about 8,800 people to remain in their homes and we have been paying increased limits on approximately 120 new tenancies on a weekly basis. In effect that is not sustainable. The major difference is that with the changes to the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Act 2015, in particular where a landlord cannot increase the rental payment for a two year period, this has allowed us to regularise the position by increasing the rent limits.

Let me assure Deputies that we are probably still going to come across cases, depending on the nature of the household, particularly a household with a large number of children or with a person who has particular medical issues, we still have the flexibility to go above the limits that were set on 1 July 2016 on a case by case basis, if the need arises.