Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

I refer to Deputy Ó Cuív's comments on top-ups, to which Deputy Clare Daly also referred earlier. Essentially, top-ups involve false declarations of what is the rent. Any top-ups such as those to which Deputy Daly referred should be reported to the Department because, in effect, they constitute an abuse of the tenant in which a social welfare income is being paid and a rent contribution then calculated that is proportionate to that income. Consequently, if Deputy Daly has evidence with regard to top-ups, I suggest she should act responsibly and report those top-ups in order that landlords are not being encouraged to exploit tenants.

On the issue of further co-operation between the PRTB and the Department, Deputy Ó Cuív in particular should note it entails furthering the involvement of the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government. Ultimately, it would be preferable to have much more widespread leasing arrangements for a longer time and negotiated at good rates. This would offer a return to the landlord but more importantly would offer value to the taxpayer. While this is what the Department is moving towards, Deputy Ó Cuív is aware that progress in this regard is slow because the local authorities have approximately 88 different differential rent schemes. However, the interdepartmental committee is undertaking an amount of work on aligning different schemes throughout the country and I hope to be able to report further progress in this regard.

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