Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

In an ideal world, the payments ought to be made directly to the landlords, which is the idea of RAS. In that way, we can ensure the landlord is tax compliant and the local authority, where it is operating the allocation, will be in a position to vet the property and establish its standard. Most importantly, the tenant is free to take up work, subject to the differential rent scheme. However, the local authorities have 88 separate differential rent schemes and 88 separate computer systems for deducting rent, so there is an IT difficulty. There is an interdepartmental working group, set up by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, on which my officials are closely involved to try to develop a system that will enable the requirements of the local authorities to be met.

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