Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)

I move amendment No. 6:

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 ensuring that 20 per cent of rent supplement is withheld from direct payments to non-resident landlords."

This is the final amendment pertaining to rent supplement. It relates to the ludicrous position where a tenant in receipt of rent supplement, in cases where the landlord is non-resident, is legally required to withhold 20% of the rent and pay it to the Revenue Commissioners on behalf of the landlord under the Finance Act. I am sure the Minister will agree that this is ridiculous but that there is a legal requirement on the tenant to do so.

My colleague, Deputy Ciarán Lynch, drew attention to this issue recently and it certainly needs attention. When it was raised recently at the Committee of Public Accounts with representatives from the Revenue Commissioners, their response was that the number of non-resident landlords in receipt of rent supplement was small; therefore, it was not a significant issue. That is a completely inadequate response. If there is a system under which public money is paid to landlords who are non-resident, there should at least be a system in place to ensure tax returns are made on that income. It does not appear to make sense that the obligation to make returns to Revenue is on tenants but that is the way it is. The purpose of the amendment is to bring an end to that practice. We do not know if they are deducting 20% or if there are any checks made. We do not know any of the information but in theory that is the position.

The objective of the amendment is to bring to an end this obligation on tenants, which is nonsensical, and place it on the Department which pays the cheques. In other circumstances there are State agencies withholding 20% DIRT, for example. It does not seem to be too much to expect the Minister's Department to be able to do this. It seems the only reason to refuse to do so is the Department's IT system is not sufficiently sophisticated to enable deductions to be made. I urge the Minister to accept the amendment and put in place a system to deal with the matter.

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