Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, United Left) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State said in a statement:

This commitment in the Programme for Government followed on-going concerns about the evolvement of rent supplement into a long-term housing support; which it was never designed to be. [Which it was never designed to be, but it was lining the pockets of the landlords for the past ten to 15 years.] It was also one of the key reforms announced in the Minister for Housing and Planning's Housing Policy Statement in June 2011.

At that time I would have expected the Minister of State to be looking to see how to put rent caps on landlords for rented accommodation, identifying areas to build social housing or finding money to try to build social housing. That was two years ago.

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