Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

Like all Senators, I am aware of houses in my constituency and every other constituency in respect of which certain people have been getting rent allowance for many years. The people in question know their accommodation is substandard, but we continue to give them rent allowance for such properties. I do not know why we are doing that, especially as many of the 80,000 houses in question are being rented out to people who are in the homeless category. They are getting the best of accommodation in houses which have been built relatively recently.