Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Some of the issue relates to rent supplement and rent caps. My colleague, the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Burton, reviewed the rent caps recently but there is a constant pressure in that particular area. The transfer of long-term rent supplement, which came under the Department of Social Protection, to the local authorities, which comes under the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, will address the area of rent caps as this will move to a system where people pay rent on the basis of their ability to pay, like local authority tenants do, and move away from dependency on rent supplement.

I appreciate this is an urgent problem but we are doing all we can through various methods to provide housing for those on local authority housing waiting lists and the families as described by Deputy Durkan.

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