Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)

I welcome the Minister to the House. The matter I raise is to do with the transferring of the administration of rental subsidies from the welfare officer to the local authority and which will cause many problems. A total of 48,000 families are on housing lists across the State and 100,000 families are on rental subsidies and in RAS, rental accommodation scheme. This is costing the State €500 million a year, which is a phenomenal sum. The local authorities face significant challenges as regards the administration of the scheme.

Many questions need to be answered. What effect will this transfer have on the role of HSE staff? Will staff be transferred to the local authorities or will the local authorities be allowed to recruit staff? It will be a major undertaking to handle such a large fund. The local authorities already deal with this money through RAS but a significant amount has not been administered by local authorities. Is there a facility under the Croke Park agreement to deal with a transfer of staff and to recruit new staff?

Families may only nominate one local authority and this will pose problems. The new rules for qualification for the housing list may mean that smaller families with sufficient room in a house may be removed from the housing list. That will pose a problem and we must scrutinise it. I would like to tease out the following questions. Will there be job losses when the local authorities take on this additional task? Will the local authorities be allowed to recruit more people? Will this happen over a period and when will it be in place? Will the Minister give us some idea of how this will work?

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