Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

My Department been working closely with the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, which has responsibility for housing. There is close co-operation between the Departments to ascertain whether more people can be taken off rent supplement. In recent months, all local authorities have begun to give priority to this issue and I look forward to seeing even greater numbers arising therefrom.

The Deputy referred to the rent amounts. The CSO survey guides the Department most and is due out in the middle of this month. It will feed into the rent limit review being undertaken by my Department. It is significant that 21,000 units are available for rent in Dublin at present, whereas only 10,000 units were available one year ago. Consequently, this should affect rent prices, as well as the availability of good quality accommodation.

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