Joe Carey (Clare, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

As this is the first formal meeting of the select committee, I congratulate the Chairman on his appointment. I look forward to working with him and other members of the committee in the time ahead.

I thank Ms Faughnan for her presentation which was informative. Housing has become a huge issue in our country. I am from County Clare and my experience with the housing section in Clare County Council has been positive. We have a good director of services in that council as well as the community welfare officers. The discretion Ms Faughnan spoke of does happen and I have many clients who have availed of it.

There is uniformity among community welfare officers in County Clare as to how they approach particular cases. That point must be made. Has the Department done any analysis on top-up payments for housing? If so, is a contingency budget set aside to meet that challenge? The Department is obviously encouraging applicants to come in and put their hands up to regularise their situation. Is there a contingency budget in place to meet that challenge?

In County Clare we have 639 active HAP tenancies since the transition from rent allowance started there. If a landlord is resisting the move from rent allowance to HAP, does any penalty apply? For example, if a tenant is availing of rent allowance and the landlord is happy with that arrangement but is resisting the move to HAP, can any type of penalty be imposed on a landlord to take HAP? Would such a landlord be within his or her rights to refuse a tenant who is moving from rent allowance to HAP?

The other questions I wanted to put have already been asked.