Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)

I move amendment No.7:

In page 6, between lines 19 and 20, to insert the following:

3.—Section 198 of the Principal Act is amended by the insertion of the following subsection after subsection (3D):

"(3E) The payment of a supplement towards the amount of rent payable by a person in respect of his or her residence will be paid to this person on the day it is due according to the tenancy agreement of this person with their landlord.".".

These three amendments relate to rent supplement. They arise out of concerns expressed by a number of the housing agencies over recent years, especially Threshold. That agency has been lobbying all parties with its concerns that are based on its first hand experience of dealing with tenants who are in rent supplement and who have identified serious problems with the way in which the scheme operates. They have been campaigning for several years for these changes to be made.

I had amendments to this effect last year and the year before as well. The issues have been well aired and what is required is a political decision to make the changes. It is in everybody's interest that these reforms be introduced to the rent supplement scheme.

The first amendment relates to the timing of the payment of rent supplement. Under current landlord and tenant legislation, a tenant is required to pay rent in advance. All private tenants and landlords operate on that basis. The rent for the month of July is paid on 1 July. It is always paid in advance, but for some reason rent supplement is paid one month in arrears. That does not seem to make any sense at all. It means that the 95,000 thousand tenants on rent supplement are in breach of their tenancy agreement in law, because they are not paying their rent in advance. That seems crazy. It is an anomaly that needs to be corrected.

The second amendment relates to the PPS details of landlords who are in receipt of rent supplement. More than €500 million is currently being paid out to private landlords in rent supplement. It seems absolutely ludicrous that this amount of public money is being paid out without any kind of assurance that there is adequate tax compliance on the part of the landlords. This issue was identified a few years ago. It was examined in close detail by the Committee of Public Accounts and we know it is currently wide open to abuse. For many years, the Department did not even have a box on the rent supplement application form for the landlord's PPS number. Strangely enough, it took some time to change that form. From figures provided to us recently, we know that a small percentage of landlords provide their PPS number. It was about 20% in April for applications made in 2009. That is a fairly abysmal rate of compliance. There is no point in continuing with a situation like this.

The Minister for Social Protection cannot just wash his hands of the issue of tax compliance, given that his Department spends this amount of money every year. He has a duty to compliant taxpayers to ensure that such money is paid out in a way that ensures there is a return for the taxpayer in terms of tax due. The purpose of this amendment is to have a requirement that all tenancies be registered with the PRTB so that the circle could be closed. Money would be paid out through rent supplement, but that would only be paid out when the property is registered with the PRTB and then registration with the PRTB could kick in for tax details and tax compliance.

Given that landlords are legally required to register properties with the PRTB, it seems an odd situation where the Department is prepared to pay out rent supplement money - that is public money - in situations where the landlord may not be registered. That does not seem to make any sense and the amendment tries to close that loophole and makes sure that all landlords in receipt of rent supplement would be registered with the PRTB, as they are required by law.

The final amendment here is amendment No. 9. There is a widespread problem where many landlords require tenants on rent supplement to make a top up payment. This should be tackled. Threshold has been campaigning on this for a long time. Many tenants on rent supplement pay their share of the rent. The State is paying the rent supplement, but a third payment is the top-up payment and this is required from many tenants. This payment is completely illegal but we know that it is a widespread practice. It is incumbent on the Minister to take action to stamp out this practice. The way to do that is to have the rent supplement paid directly from the HSE to the landlord. In that way, many different anomalies in the system can be dealt with.

The Minister said on Committee Stage that he would have meetings with various housing groups. We know what the housing groups want. The issues have not changed in recent years. They are public and all the political parties have been lobbied on them. We know the changes they want and these three amendments encompass several of those changes. On that basis, I ask the Minister to bite the bullet and reform the area of rent supplement.

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