Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

I acknowledge that the progress has been disappointing. The Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government tells me it will accommodate 256 people under the rental accommodation scheme by the end of the year. It reckons that up to 33,000 households could benefit eventually under the new arrangements. This would probably cost over €120 million.

I do not have a note on any particular targets, nor do I recall a target as large as the one suggested. The target is 33,000, in the sense that this is the number of people on the database who have been on rent supplement for over 18 months and who are therefore technically eligible under the scheme.

My colleague, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, is pressing ahead to determine whether more progress can be made under the scheme. This is the correct approach although progress to date has been disappointing.

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