Pat Moylan (Fianna Fail)

Social welfare has, through subventions, supported people who are not in a position to provide themselves with accommodation. However, I agree with Senator Terry on the need to review this. When rent subvention was first introduced, it cost approximately €3 million per year, but as Ministers have increased subvention over the years, landlords have increased the cost of rented accommodation.

There have been some improvements on accommodation. In the past planning permission was granted for developments without a requirement to include social and affordable housing, but that has changed. It is only now that we are beginning to see the benefit of this change, particularly in country areas. There was a difficulty also with regard to the types of houses the Department insisted on for social and affordable housing. Often it insisted on the building of three and four-bedroomed council houses despite most applicants being single or families with only one or two children. Many of these people would have settled for a smaller dwelling, more of which could have been built from available funding. The Department may have realised this eventually, but it lost valuable time that should have been used to provide suitable accommodation for people on the list.

In general the system works well. There were many complaints about the accommodation available in the past, but properties are now registered and there is an improvement in standards. In the past, money was often paid directly to the person renting accommodation and was not always passed on to landlords. These tenants were then evicted and new accommodation had to be found for them. The improvements are welcome, but the situation must be watched carefully because the more the Minister increases the allowance, the more landlords increase the cost of accommodation in order to benefit from the increase.

I compliment the Minister on the measures he has taken. Were it not for them, many young couples and families would have a serious problem with regard to accommodation.