Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

No, I am glad to see that so many people are able to benefit from the scheme. The fact of more rental accommodation becoming available should help keep the prices down. The rent supplement budget for next year is €462 million. There is pressure on that due to the number of people losing their jobs. Approximately 72,000 people will benefit from it. It is a lot of money but given that 72,000 people are being housed for it, it is a good recognition of how the Government is trying to respond to people's difficulties. Deputy Enright already mentioned the new housing scheme introduced through the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. The RAS scheme, which did not work well in all local authorities for a while, is now operating effectively in all local authorities. I would hope to see more successes from that and to see people transferring from the rent supplement into RAS units or, more important, into social or other voluntary housing.

See this speech in context