Séamus Healy (Tipperary, Workers and Unemployed Action Group) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for the response but it is the usual Department script. We need to know why, nine years after the 2009 Act, the rent differential scheme is not yet a reserved function for local authority members. It is now four years since the introduction of the Housing Act 2014. Reserving this function for local authority members is an element of both Acts. Will the Minister of State clarify the position of SI 214 of 2014? The increases that have been introduced are horrendous. The example I provided indicated a more than 100% increase but I have numerous others.

There is a new method of assessing incomes of joint tenants or of partners and spouses. It imposes a 20% rather than 10% assessment of additional income. In many cases, there are husbands and wives, spouses or partners where one has a half-rate carer's allowance. The new system reduces the €107 per week of the half-rate carer's allowance by €21.40, or 20%. These carers are looking after spouses or partners on a 24-7 basis but they are effectively being cut by 20%. There is a similar issue with family income supplement, as workers on very low incomes entitled to family income supplement lose 20% under these new rent rules. These are horrendous increases. When will the process become a reserved function, as indicated in two Acts going back over nine years? We have heard promises before but they have not been implemented. When will the reserved function be implemented finally?

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