Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)

The Deputy makes a fair point. I have indicated my intention to look at the assessment regulations by the end of the year and I will take on board submissions from Deputies in this regard. There is nobody better than Oireachtas Members and local authority representatives in this regard because they are at the coalface and can identify the shortcomings and failures of any system. The new application process has brought some degree of consistency and uniformity. It is important, for example, that what is applied in Westmeath can also be applied in Dublin. However, if there is a lacuna, particularly where people have been subject to a repossession order or something of that nature, it is important that they be accommodated. I refer to situations where home owners are no longer in a position to pay their mortgage and the legal system has moved beyond the threat of proceedings to them having to vacate their home.

I am eager that this situation be accommodated within the overall assessment procedure. It is a comprehensive procedure. I have a view, informed by being a local authority representative where the best education is obtained, that there should be, as far as possible, a one-stop shop in respect of social housing policy. I intend to bring forward a social housing policy review in the coming months. A priority in this regard is the provision of a one-stop model where a person is assessed only once as opposed to the situation in the past where there were multiple assessments. I understand there are always concerns about anything new. The form has to be comprehensive in order to ensure that it is right for Athlone Town Council as well as for Westmeath County Council. That is more efficient than having people traipsing into two different offices.

Another issue I have considered in depth in the past ten weeks relates to supplementary welfare provision and the rent allowance scheme. Persons undergo a rigorous assessment by the local authority after which they receive an assessment letter and must then go off to a community welfare officer somewhere else, perhaps a considerable distance away. It may be time to bite the bullet and to incorporate all of this within a social housing context. Whereas rental income support was originally intended as a temporary income support measure it has now become an integral part of overall social housing policy.

That is what I am thinking about.

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