Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

——between the HSE, the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, the CSO, the Private Rented Tenancies Board and interested voluntary organisations. It is one of those schemes that needs to be kept constantly under review, particularly to see how it is working in getting people into appropriate housing.

The big difference between the RAS and the rent supplement is that the RAS is available to people who can engage in full-time employment, and that must be one of its key successes. Transferring people from rent supplement, which brings with it a dependency on social welfare, to the RAS would allow people to work as well. Obviously, it is means tested but it would target those on low incomes who up until now would not be able to benefit from employment.

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