Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)

The issues brought to light by the "Prime Time" programme were of great concern to all of us. However, it must be remembered that the issues the programme raised were on the basis of rent supplement, which is the remit of the Department of Social and Family Affairs and is operated by community welfare officers. Before the programme was broadcast I was very aware of people going into the rented accommodation scheme. We built in the region of 700,000 units in the past ten years and 100,000 were taken up by the rented sector. Therefore the standards under rented accommodation are excellent and obviously we are encouraging more and more. We want to take 32,000 people off the rent supplement and put them into rent accommodation by 2009, and we are progressing in that direction.

In relation to community welfare officers and rent supplement, I am concerned that people are engaged in a desktop activity in this regard. I met the director of community care six weeks ago and told him I was not happy with the standard of accommodation. I asked that there should be further discussions between the HSE and the Department on setting protocols which would review matters on the ground. If, for instance, a local authority examines a property with a view to bringing someone into rented accommodation after 18 months and if it is not up to scratch, this should be reported to the community welfare office. In the event, the community welfare office will then identify the property concerned as not being suitable for rent supplement purposes. We are making progress in this regard.

See this speech in context