Frank Feighan (Fine Gael)

The Comptroller and Auditor General yesterday issued a disturbing report on serious abuse of the rent supplement scheme, which will have cost almost €2 billion in slightly more than five years. Politicians will have seen many instances of the scheme being abused. In one case an asylum seeker who was working illegally claimed around €85,000 in more than four years but faces a decrease in rent supplement of just €15 per week. This contrasts with the treatment of the naive individuals caught with offshore accounts who were hounded and faced the prospect of prison because of the penalties imposed on them.

It is more lucrative for a landlord to rent a property to a single person receiving rent supplement than to a professional couple. The Government has failed to tackle the rental market with the result that large amounts of money are being lost. This episode also shows that the successors of the health boards are incapable of properly administering our finances. Responsibility for the administration of the rent supplement scheme must transfer to local authorities. It is about time this serious abuse of public funds was highlighted because we are sick and tired of it. With average rents in Dublin now €276 per week, the waste of money in the rent supplement scheme must cease. I propose that the House debate this serious issue.