Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

The purpose of the supplementary welfare allowance rent supplement scheme, administered on my behalf by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive, is to ensure that private sector tenants who are not in full-time employment or full-time education have a guaranteed minimum amount of income with which to meet their basic day to day needs after paying rent. It is a short-term income support measure, rather than a long-term housing measure.

The scheme includes a variety of income disregards in determining the amount of assistance to be provided in individual cases. It is flexible, particularly for unemployed people who seek to get back to work or into community employment or training under the various relevant State schemes. That will remain the position after the new rental accommodation scheme arrangements commence for longer-term recipients.

While the objective of rent supplement is to provide short-term income support as opposed to addressing long-term accommodation needs, a significant number of people had come to rely on rent supplements on a long-term basis over recent years. The Government announced an initiative in July 2004 aimed at meeting these long-term housing needs. The new system gives local authorities responsibility for meeting long-term housing assistance needs, including the needs of those people on rent supplements for 18 months or longer. These needs will be met through a range of approaches including the traditional range of social housing options, the voluntary housing sector and, in particular, a new public private partnership type rental accommodation scheme.

The aim of the new system is to minimise ongoing dependence on rent supplement by progressing to a situation where suitable long-term accommodation is available for all who need it. The rent supplement scheme will continue to meet the short-term needs of people for accommodation. This will be achieved within three years from commencement of the new arrangements in each local authority and in any event no later than September 2008.

The level of rent charged by local authorities under the new scheme is a matter for each local authority. Arrangements in that regard have not been finalised but are well advanced. Rent levels will be set in a manner broadly consistent with the current local authority differential rents system. This system does not distinguish between sources of income in determining the appropriate rent payable in each case.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House.

Accordingly, while the overall income level of the household will determine the rent payable under the rental accommodation scheme, there will be no specific restrictions on employment. Participants on rental accommodation schemes will be free to take up work or extend their employment hours as they wish, with some appropriate adjustment made by the local authority to their rent levels to reflect their increased income.

The new arrangements for people with longer-term accommodation needs will be fully in accord with the thrust of the national anti-poverty strategy. Similarly, I consider that the rent supplement scheme remaining in place for people with shorter-term needs is an assistance towards poverty alleviation for low-income households.

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