Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

I understand the difficulties faced by Deputy Buttimer's constituents. That is why there are two specific avenues for dealing with this in the programme for Government. The first is to transfer long-term rent supplement to local authorities, which have housing expertise. They have the powers to deal with tenants who are misbehaving and causing significant distress to people living nearby. In the programme for Government there is also a commitment to introduce arrangements whereby people on rent supplement would be subject to the same conditions as people who are direct tenants of local authorities. If we can achieve both of these aims, and particularly the transfer of the bulk of tenancies with long-term rent supplement recipients to local authorities, we will have dealt with the issue.

Last October community welfare officers left the HSE and joined the staff of the Department of Social Protection. As the Deputy noted, these staff used to be in the HSE but are now officials of the Department. Our aim for long-term reform is to have the bulk of long-term tenancies transferred to the local authorities and run under local authority conditions.

See this speech in context