Dan Boyle (Cork South Central, Green Party)

I strongly support the motion tabled by the Labour Party. It has been a long-standing policy of my party to replace supplementary welfare allowance with a direct housing benefit payment and it is good to see that others are thinking along the same lines. In the 30 years that supplementary welfare allowance has been in existence, its inequities have been apparent and it has given rise to stigmatisation in instances where people could not make additional payments to landlords.

However, the problem has become especially marked during the period since this Government took office in 1997. In that nine-year period, the number of households making use of this form of assistance has doubled and because of rental price inflation, the amount of money made available for supplementary rent allowance has quadrupled. There are no more damning indictments or shameful statistics than those figures.

By changing to a direct payment system, we would remove many of the inconsistencies of the current system, such as the payment of supplementary welfare allowance irrespective of whether the landlord is registered with the Private Resident Tenancies Board and regardless of the quality of basic facilities. Only last week, one of my constituents in a private tenancy arrangement complained of not having access to hot water. Other people lack basic toilet facilities. Most apartments, which represent one third of the housing stock built in this country since 1995, are of the cardboard box variety and because they are particularly hard to heat, impose extra hardships on people trying to survive on State allowances for rent and everyday household needs. The motion is pertinent on these grounds alone.

The Government cannot slither away from the fact that, at the end of the day, too many people make use of a payment which does not help them in terms of meeting basic housing needs. An explanation is needed for the failure of every housing initiative introduced since 1997. Despite ever increasing local authority housing lists, affordable housing is still small in scale, few in number and too slow in coming on stream. Seven months after the announcement of new projects for the rental accommodation scheme, they have still not physically manifested themselves.

This Government is not interested in real reform of the housing sector and is only willing to support the people who engage in property speculation. This is the Government which has introduced the triple whammy effect for people who speculate in property at the expense of Irish taxpayers and those in need of accommodation. Tax reliefs have been provided for the construction of cardboard-type housing and on the rent received for such accommodation. Through the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, the State funds 40% of all rents paid in this country. This triple benefit is given by taxpayers to people who should be ashamed of themselves and who are not even living up the legislative responsibilities put on paper by this Government. The Government is showing no sign that it will enforce these responsibilities through the provision of proper resources to local authorities or a national organisation which would monitor housing quality, nor is it putting plans in place for housing that will be available to and affordable by everybody.

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