Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)

I agree that significant savings can be made in the area of rent supplement and that there should be a reduction in what landlords receive. However, I have a difficulty with the manner in which the Minister is approaching this. She is, in effect, asking 85,000 households to negotiate directly with their landlords. Some will have the ability to do this, but others will not. The Minister referred twice in her statement to expectations as regards landlords' remuneration decreasing. She is operating from a position of hope, in believing this is something that will happen. Will the Minister or her Department take any action directly? Since the Department has the names and addresses of the landlords through the forms people fill out for rent supplement, will it make contact with them? As regards advertising in the media, a landlord can open a local paper and close it again, without concurring that he should decrease his rent charges by 8%.

The Minister has chosen a blanket figure of 8%, while the figures for rent up and down the country are very different. She admitted last week, for example, that there is a real problem with tenants in bed-sits, particularly in Dublin inner city and perhaps in other highly populated areas. It is an unfair way to do it. In some places, it has gone down by as much as 13% while in others, it has only gone down by 5%. It is a totally inequitable way to do it. The Minister could have made greater savings in some areas which she could have offset against areas in which she will make fewer savings.

In addition to the print media, I hope the Minister has another plan to get in touch with landlords to try to achieve this. I did not expect the Minister to double in the past six months what the tenant must pay which, coupled with this reduction, will leave some people homeless.

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