Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Smith has raised a very important point. It makes no sense that there are two rental arrangements for the approved housing body sector. The case raised by Deputy Smith arose because capital assistance scheme funding has more flexibility than capital advance leasing facility funding. There should only be one system of rental arrangements in this sector.

I would like to mention two other anomalies. Local authorities do not include family income supplement or carer's allowance in their assessments for rent payment purposes, but some housing associations do in certain kinds of tenancies. That makes no sense whatsoever. Similarly, some housing associations are starting to require deposits from tenants. This is not happening in the case of availability agreement-funded units, but is happening in other cases. Such inconsistencies cause real difficulties for people. I urge the Minister of State to ensure the same rental systems, and the same calculations for rent, apply to local authority houses and to all approved housing body tenancies. I do not think this necessarily needs to be in the forthcoming legislation.

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