Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

I would be interested to hear exactly what changes Deputy Durkan anticipates. I know that more people are under pressure for their rent and mortgages than in the past, but it is important that the 5,000 people gaining the mortgage interest supplement receive it only to supplement the interest rather than the capital because these people will be left with a good capital asset. I am not sure whether Deputy Durkan is suggesting the supplement should go to paying off the capital as well as the interest but, as the Deputy knows, 63,000 people benefit from the rent supplement at a cost of €392 million while just over 5,000 people benefit from the mortgage interest supplement at a cost of €14.3 million this year.

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