Patrick Nulty (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

There is a commitment in the programme for Government to reduce eligibility for the rental accommodation scheme, RAS, from 18 to six months for people receiving rent supplement. However, in reply to a parliamentary question I tabled, the Minister said she was not going to proceed with that. The measure would address the problem she raised regarding people moving from welfare to work because, as she knows, if one is eligible for RAS, one can work more than 30 hours per week. Why is she not proceeding with that very simple change?

I have spoken to community welfare officers in her Department off the record who I am sure have told the Minister that the leases coming before them are a fiction. In order to keep children in the place where they are settled and in the same schools, landlords and tenants are agreeing leases that meet the caps but are in fact going back to the old practice of topping up payments. This is a cut in social welfare by default because the money is coming straight out of those families' incomes. That needs to be addressed.

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