David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)

On amendment No. 18, concerns were raised at a recent meeting of the End Child Poverty Coalition regarding the administration of the RAS. Recipients of rent supplement were transferred to local authority housing lists. The Minister might let us know how the system is functioning. A lot of money has been transferred from his Department to the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government but little has been spent. Therefore, the scheme may need to be reviewed. Figures obtained from the replies to two parliamentary questions I tabled earlier in the year indicate that just €8 million of the €63 million allocated to the Department of Social and Family Affairs has been spent on the scheme. There are 59,000 tenants in receipt of rent supplement, of whom approximately 32,000 have been receiving the payment for 18 months or more. Some 20,000 of these have been reviewed, while 3,000 have been provided with RAS accommodation.

It appears the scheme may not be working as intended. The quality of much private rental accommodation is very poor; we all come across this from time to time. We all encounter individuals with very small children living in terrible conditions. As I stated, some people refuse rent supplement. This is a significant issue.

Housing is one of the major issues with which we all must contend. Some days ago we had a meeting on poverty, the most considerable issue of all. High quality housing for people on very low incomes must be made available. Only for the rent supplement scheme, such persons would literally be on the side of the road. Even as matters stand, they are under ferocious pressure.

Something needs to be done. Social housing for people on low incomes is one of the issues on which the Government has clearly failed considerably. In this regard, consider a case with which I dealt some days ago of a lady with two small children who was expecting another. She and her husband who was on a very low wage were renting a house and did not know about family income supplement. She asked whether I could do anything to get her family a house. Local authorities have housing officers but some local authority areas such as that in Cork are so big that it can take months for the few such officers to make assessments.

I am not sure whether the RAS will succeed and whether it is being reviewed. The targets outlined originally were clearly missed. Where do we go from here with the scheme?

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