Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

I will examine the issue, as I see the point the Deputy has made. More than €400 million is spent under the scheme per annum. The number of recipients of rent supplement has almost doubled in a decade. In 1995, when the scheme began, the figure was 32,000 but today it is more than 60,000. Of the 60,173 people in the scheme, more than half, or 33,000, have been in it for 18 months or more, which shows some hardening of the stock, if I may put it that way. That is my concern, that people would get settled in the scheme.

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