Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)

I move amendment No. 5:

In page 6, between lines 7 and 8, to insert the following:

3.—The Minister shall as soon as may be after the passing of this Act prepare and lay before both Houses of the Oireachtas a report on restricting the number of rent supplement recipients to 20 per cent in a given location.

This amendment was the subject of considerable discussion on Committee Stage. I propose that a quota system be applied to the payment of rent supplement for any single apartment development or housing estate. I suggest that a limit of 20% be operated because experience has taught us that the nature and character of a housing development can change substantially, in a negative way, when an undue proportion of those living in the development are on rent supplement. The social balance within developments can be skewed in such circumstances. In response to the shortage of building land in the Dublin city area, Dublin City Council has recently started to buy back properties in various parts of the city, or acquire them for the first time, to rent them out, rather than building houses from scratch. The council's practice of buying properties and then letting them to people who are on the housing list has operated successfully over recent years. We know that problems can arise when an excessive number of social housing units in a single development are rented out in such a manner. For that reason, a maximum of 20% of houses in any area can be bought under the council's buy-back policy. I suggest we apply the same kind of quota system to rent supplement. I remind the Minister that on Committee Stage he sympathised with what I was trying to achieve and said he had first-hand experience of the difficulties caused. He also indicated he would give consideration to the matter. I hope that in the past week or so he has had an opportunity to do so and will accede to the amendment.

See this speech in context