Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

The supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which includes rent supplement, is administered on behalf of the Department by the community welfare service of the Health Service Executive. The purpose of rent supplement is to provide short-term income support to eligible tenants living in private rented accommodation whose means are insufficient to meet their accommodation costs and who do not have accommodation available to them from any other source. There are currently over 63,000 tenants benefiting from assistance under the rent supplement scheme.

Responsibility for setting and enforcing housing standards rests with the local authorities. The community welfare service of the HSE is not qualified to undertake this work. However, accommodation occupied by rent supplement tenants should at least meet minimum housing standards. Under legislative provisions introduced by the Department in 2006 and 2007, the HSE can decide that a rent supplement may not be payable where it has been notified by a housing authority regarding non-compliance with housing standards.

Where a notification of non-compliance with standards is received from a housing authority in respect of an existing tenant, guidelines recommend that a community welfare officer should discuss the situation with the tenant and take whatever action is necessary in the best interests of the tenant. The objective is to ensure that substandard accommodation does not come within rent supplementation. The HSE must be satisfied that accommodation funded under the rent supplement scheme is reasonably suited to the residential and other needs of the claimant. Where the HSE becomes aware of accommodation or blocks of accommodation which appears to it to be sub-standard, it notifies the local authority and it may advise prospective tenants at that premises that rent supplement will not be paid in respect of those tenancies.

A review of the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 1993 is being undertaken by the Minister for State at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. The guidelines will be reviewed in consultation with the community welfare service when the new regulations are published, with a view to supporting the implementation of any provisions that impact on the rent supplement scheme.

The Department is committed to working with and supporting the Department of the Environment Heritage and Local Government in meeting its responsibilities in relation to housing standards.

See this speech in context