Jack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)

I move amendment No. 15:

In page 9, between lines 35 and 36, to insert the following:

14.—The Minister shall as soon as may be after the passing of this Act prepare and lay before both Houses of the Oireachtas a report on allowing rent supplement claimants on the waiting list for the Rental Accommodation Scheme switch to the terms of the differential rent of their local authority.

The thinking behind this amendment was to ensure that poverty traps for tenants do not develop and that they can be moved, as soon as possible, to the rental accommodation scheme. Differential rents would then come into play with the local authority with which the applicant would deal.

I receive an amazing number of telephone calls relating that landlords are seeking to provide accommodation on the basis of the rental accommodation scheme. Some of these involve individual houses. Many are flats and apartments and I have even seen a retirement village for senior citizens secured by people under the rental accommodation scheme. This provides a transparent way of ensuring that those in receipt of such payments are not put into poverty traps, that there would be a mechanism that can be checked and that there would be a linkage between the local authority, the landlord and the tenant. That would be to the benefit of the tenant, which, ultimately, is the most important concern addressed by this amendment.

See this speech in context