Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for her extensive reply and in particular for the review that is taking place, which she indicated in reply to a previous question. I also thank her for her understanding of the situation, which is becoming precarious for many people in north Kildare, where private rents are higher than they are in most parts of Dublin by virtue of competition. As the Minister has just acknowledged, this results in serious hardship for those who are caught in a poverty trap and cannot go to work because they are dependent on rent support. They are on the local authority housing list and are in receipt of rent support in lieu of local authority housing, a situation the Minister understands exactly.

The ideal situation is to transfer responsibility to the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, whose responsibility it is to meet the housing needs of the community. In the absence of that, I ask that the Minister for Social Protection try to ensure those who are under the greatest pressure in terms of rent support are at least acknowledged in the short term. If necessary, she should apply a deadline for the situation to change over.

On a point that has been the subject of other parliamentary questions, I particularly ask that she consult with her colleagues in the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government to try to ensure that a major capital housing programme is initiated. Some 100,000 families are on local authority housing lists, 8,500 of those in County Kildare alone. Critics will say they only want the rent support. However, they do not have a house of their own or anywhere to go, and they have no means of housing themselves and their families other than through the rent support system.

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