Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

We need to do a number of things. I agree with what the Deputy said. It is not satisfactory that people are in long-term receipt of rent supplement, particularly where there are children involved. Moving from house to house and from school to school can often create great instability. I agree with the Deputy that this issue needs to be tackled.

I am sure the Deputy is interested in the figures involved. The total private and voluntary transfers to the RAS was 505 at the end of 2005, 2,333 in 2006, 2,918 in 2007, 3,645 in 2008, 3,999 at the end of 2009, and 1,433 for the current year to May. When those figures are broken down between the 30 or so local authorities, those involved do not constitute a huge number. I will discuss with my colleague the Minister of State, Deputy Finneran, how we might progress this matter. I will also meet representatives of the various groups, namely, Simon and Threshold.

As the Deputies will probably be aware since I took up this office I have been very busy. One reason I am looking forward to the plenary sessions of the Dáil ending is that much of the work that needs to be done with the Departments, officials and so on, is done when the Dáil is not in session. We have to try to get to a situation where there is a much bigger transfer of people from the temporary solution of rent supplement to a permanent solution of either social housing or the RAS. One of the attractions of the RAS is that it creates greater integration in housing rather than the social exclusion of some estates in the past.

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