Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I agree that the concept of transferring responsibility to the local authorities is to be welcomed, and I agree that the emphasis should be on the RAS, as has been the case in recent years. There are 100,000 people on our housing waiting lists, which means there are almost 100,000 people on rent allowance. The number on the housing list has risen to 56,000 since 2008. The Minister mentioned some schemes announced by the Minister of State with responsibility for housing. However, there is a dilemma with regard to social protection and the pressure to maintain social welfare rates as per the programme for Government, to which the Government re-committed to after 100 days in office. Should the Government not seek to create schemes that would benefit the greatest number of people at a lesser cost to the taxpayer? In this instance, such goals cannot be achieved through a large budget for rent allowance, but could be achieved through utilisation of the social dividend that NAMA owes to the taxpayers of this State. Has there been some co-operation on this between the Minister and the Minister of State with responsibility for housing? Has the Minister sought to advance the prospect of co-opting NAMA in order for the State to capitalise on what was promised initially as a social dividend?

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