Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

We have built savings of €48 million into that. The additional claims accounted for amount to €77 million. Unfortunately, it is one of those cases where there was an increase in demand.

Deputy Naughten's second question is central to reducing expenditure on rent supplement, which is to get people to move to RAS. The responsibility of local authorities is critical in this matter. We found that people were reluctant to move from private rented accommodation in a location of their choice to local authority housing. Since we increased the minimum payment that people must pay, finance is not having a deterrent effect. In some cases we found that people were paying less on the minimum contribution on the rent supplement than one would pay in local authority housing. We have removed this disincentive but it is something on which we are keeping a close eye. I work closely with the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Michael Finneran, on this issue because of its link with housing.

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