Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)

I express my deep appreciation to Deputy Gilmore for raising this issue and for the research he put into the motion. For as long as I know him he has had a huge interest in the issue and has extensive knowledge of it.

Many of us here may not realise that today is Valentine's day because we have probably not been reminded with gifts and flowers. People who do research on the effects of such celebrations inform me that on every Valentine's day there are more proposals of marriage and offers of cohabitation than at any other time of the year. I see from the silence that nobody here was that lucky this year.

We must move on from Valentine's day to when the gloss goes off the roses and the offer becomes a reality. How do couples set up a household here? Where do they go to live and how do they manage it? If both partners in a couple are not in full-time employment, if the bank is not generous enough or they do not have wealthy parents, they usually end up in private rented accommodation. Some 40% of all those in private rented accommodation are in receipt of rent supplement.

After the hash made by Deputy Coughlan when she was Minister for Social and Family Affairs, we were all a bit relieved when Deputy Brennan took over the Department. In my first conversation with the newly appointed Minister at the time I asked him about rent supplement and suggested introducing a sliding scale to allow people, who had no option other than to live under this draconian scheme, to go out and find work. We all know these people because they visit us every day of the week and they are usually young women. Young men do not normally leave home, perhaps because they have more sense. However, there are some men in the rent allowance trap, usually middle-aged men whose marriages or relationships have broken down who find themselves in sub-standard accommodation and on rent allowance.

Let us look at the young women in this situation. They have decided to go out and make a life for themselves, perhaps because of overcrowding or other conditions in the home. Not only must these young women suffer the indignity of sub-standard accommodation, they must suffer the glare of people who wonder why they do not work. The reason they do not work is that if they do, everything they earn is deducted, euro for euro, from their rent allowance.

A welfare officer I know has told me that the latest changes to the rent allowance scheme has made her job virtually impossible because she now measures up to the reputation of a community welfare officer. She has become hard-hearted and stony faced because whatever flexibility there was with the scheme is gone. It was removed by Deputy Coughlan when she put a cap on rent allowance. This was the most appalling cut of all.

As Deputy Gilmore mentioned, most people top up their rent allowance in paying the landlord. A statement is received from the landlord that the rent is a certain amount, and the community welfare office pays on that basis. The tenant may then pay between €20 and €40 a week to ensure he or she can stay in the accommodation. The alternative is that the tenant seeks worse accommodation and probably not get it. Several reports have been carried out on this and it is not as if the Department is not aware of such a practice.

The State has abandoned to the private sector our responsibility for housing. This Government is complicit in that, and the person directly responsible is Deputy Noel Ahern. We have decided that the private sector will do the State's job for it. Not alone will the private sector do this, but the State will pay for it to be done. We will pay the private sector not once but twice. We will support the private sector when it decides to move to another area or more lucrative opportunities.

In Cork city, there are 9,465 recipients of rent allowance. Cork City Council has in its housing stock 7,710 local authority houses. It is clear from these figures where the shift has occurred, that there has been a shift to the private sector. In many cases, one can see why people choose to live in the private sector. In many cases the accommodation is better, which is not a good reflection on the Minister's Department.

Young men and women are stuck in a bind they cannot get out of. Local authorities are no longer building houses, and if they do, their number is so few that applications are incredible. Cork City Council's housing list runs to 5,500 people seeking accommodation. That is incredible. If anybody on the Opposition benches was responsible for such a record, or the record read out by Deputy Gilmore regarding the reduction in house builds in the social sector in the past five years, we would be ashamed to come in here, let alone heckle the person telling us about it.

A study has also indicated that people on rent allowance are excluded from approximately 70% of private rented accommodation. This was done in a peculiar manner, and it is something I have noticed since examining the Threshold report. There are advertisements in, for example, The Evening Echo or the The Examiner, with subtle details such as "only professional couples need apply". In other words, people with rent allowance should not apply. If a person inquired about these advertisements and asked if rent allowance would be accepted, the response would usually be negative, as difficulties may have been experienced in the past, for example.

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