Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 69: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the details on the meetings she has had with the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government with a view to moving persons from rent supplement to the rental accommodation scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [9233/10]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The purpose of the rent supplement scheme is to provide short-term support to eligible people living in private rented accommodation whose means are insufficient to meet their accommodation costs and who do not have accommodation available to them from any other source. The overall aim is to provide short-term assistance, not to act as an alternative to the other social housing schemes operated by the Exchequer. There are currently almost 93,200 tenants benefiting from a rent supplement payment, an increase of 55% since the end of 2005. More than half of these are in receipt of payment for more than one year, while more than 33,000 have been receiving payments for 18 months or more.

The rental accommodation scheme, RAS, which was introduced in 2004, gives local authorities specific responsibility for meeting the longer-term housing needs of those in receipt of rent supplement for 18 months or more. Details of these cases are notified regularly by the Department to local authorities. Local authorities meet the housing needs of these individuals through a range of approaches including the traditional range of social housing options, the voluntary housing sector and, in particular, the RAS. Latest figures from the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government indicate that to date, more than 24,800 transfers from rent supplement have occurred. Since 2005 local authorities have transferred more than 13,400 rent supplement cases to the RAS, while housing authorities have transferred a further 11,413 recipients to other social housing options.

It is accepted that progress in regard to RAS was initially slower than expected. However, the pace of delivery has improved significantly. In total, 14,000 recipients were transferred in 2008 and 2009, achieving the targets set for RAS transfers for these years. The target established for 2010 is 8,000. In addition to this official target, due to the numbers of unsold affordable stock throughout the State, an opportunity has arisen to make use of some of these properties for RAS and it is expected that additional transfers may be possible in 2010.

The Department continues to work closely with the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government in ensuring RAS meets its objective of catering for those on long-term rent supplementation while enabling rent supplement to return to its original role of a short-term income support. The Department provides regular reports to the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and regular meetings are conducted with the RAS programme managers of the various local authorities.

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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What is the reason for the difficulties and blockages that have arisen in respect of the RAS? It is my experience and that of colleagues that there are people in receipt of rent supplement for years. I accept the Minister's figure of 33,000 people in receipt of the supplement for more than 18 months, but it seems low. I am aware of people who have been in receipt of it in the long term and do not want to come off it for various reasons, often because of the location of the property they are currently renting. The payment is costing the State €500 million per year.

Is the Minister satisfied that the local authorities are doing enough to ensure there is awareness of the rental accommodation scheme? The Minister has made changes in terms of the payment of rent supplement, with tenants themselves rather than landlords bearing the brunt of those changes. Does the Minister agree that the target for this year is somewhat unambitious? Given that more than 90,000 people are in receipt of rent supplement at a cost of nearly €500 million and that there is such an abundance of vacant rental properties, the target of moving 8,000 to the rental accommodation scheme does not seem very ambitious.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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One of the blockages is that many of these people are not the responsibility of the local authority. If the authority houses them, it does not necessarily mean it is reducing its own list. They might be reducing the social welfare lists but they are not reducing the housing list, and in my view, that is one of the blockages. For this reason, last year, we insisted on people having a full housing assessment and when being deemed to be in need of housing that the local authority would take responsibility for them. There is, therefore, some incentive for the local authority to house them. This is one element.

A second element, which I am not sure is fully addressed, is the difference between what one pays as a personal contribution towards rent against what one would pay on the differential rents scheme in Dublin, for example. Under the rent supplement scheme a person pays €24 while the average in Dublin is €58 but the minimum is €25. This may be an issue.

As the Deputy said, we all have constituents who talk to us. A girl came to see me recently who has turned down two offers of housing because they were not in areas she wanted and yet she is still receiving a rent supplement. I can see that this is also a difficulty. Unfortunately the longer she is left on the rent supplement the more secure her children become in school and in that local community and she will only accept a house within that area. These are genuine issues. On the question as to whether the target for this year is under-ambitious, I like targets that can be achieved and as I indicated in my reply, the amount of affordable housing stock available is an opportunity to increase that number.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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A brief supplementary question, Deputy Enright.

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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The Minister has alluded to the existing blockages and I ask what she plans to do to remove them. If a person on rent supplement refuses a house is this decision notified to the Department? There has to be an element of strictness. I agree one must consider people's needs and whether children are in school but there has to be a bit of practicality. This scheme was intended as a temporary measure but it has turned into a permanent arrangement. To be fair to the people on the scheme, it is because of the failure of the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to provide adequate housing for people in the first place.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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An t-Aire for a final and brief reply.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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A total of €500 million for 93,000 people is a good security for those people and it is keeping them in rented accommodation. It also acknowledges the difficulties experienced by those people. What I do not like to see is the scheme being used as a long-term arrangement because it was never designed to be that kind of scheme. Some of the changes we introduced will help to overcome those barriers, such as the amount of personal contribution and the fact that it is now the responsibility of the local authorities. It is hoped that the current surplus of unused and available housing stock may be one solution. My own local housing authority is also anxious that people should not be permitted to make several refusals of housing and my Department is examining this aspect of the scheme and is working closely with the local authorities.