Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

-----and to transfer responsibility for housing to the local authority housing department, where it should be, and therefore allow people on a local authority supplemented rent to access employment because at the moment it is an employment trap. With the change in legislation, we have now offered a very attractive amendment to the local authorities because all around the country, in Dublin, Limerick and all the big areas, local authorities have been worried at the amount of rent arrears that have built up. Some of that happened simply because of the lack of legislation. I hope we are now on a different course. The provision of housing is very important and the Deputy’s colleague from Limerick, my party colleague, the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government with responsibility for housing, Deputy Jan O’Sullivan, will answer detailed questions on that topic.

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