Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

Many issues were raised which I will try to address. The responsibility for setting and enforcing household standards rests with local authorities. If, however, a property is occupied by rent supplement tenants, it must meet the minimum standards. Regulations were introduced that allowed the HSE to refuse rent supplement for a property that does not reach the required standard.

There is, however, a weakness in the system. At the moment, the tenancy is taken up and then registered with the PRTB. That is akin to a hotel taking guests then registering with Fáilte Ireland. The Minister of State and I are examining a situation where the property is registered as being to let first and if it is not registered as being to let, the landlord would not be able to get a rent supplement tenant.

The local authority does the inspections. I would like those inspections to be extended to cover energy ratings, because those in rented accommodation make up the greatest percentage of those suffering from fuel poverty. People think about money for fuel poverty but when the figures are analysed, it is not a function of money but of the poor thermal properties of the properties in question, where no matter how much heat is generated, it just goes out through the windows and doors. I am committed to resolving this issue and we need to approach it differently.

Another idea that has been floated is that before a property had to be registered with the PRTB, allowing that local authorities do not have the resources to check all properties, a certificate of compliance to building and energy standards would be needed. We must do a lot of work but it is incremental. The big mistake in the past was that we tried to do everything in one go or did nothing at all. My view is that if every six months we know what we want to do, we can change direction and that is a better way to institute long-term change than waiting for the entire package. Perfection can stymie progress when we could probably achieve 90% quickly and any issues that require extra time could then be approached.

There are both bad landlords and bad tenants. The issue was raised with me of a tenant purposely starting a dispute with a landlord, referring it to the PRTB and then not paying the rent while the PRTB is adjudicating, which could take nine months. When the issue is resolved, the tenant simply leaves taking the rent supplement money. We are looking at this but my view is that if the tenant is not paying the landlord because of a dispute, we should withhold payment until the dispute is resolved. The temptation exists for the tenant to leave with the money. Similarly, if landlords are blackguarding, there should be measures in place to ensure payment is withheld.

There are three types of people: those who pay by the book, those landlords who do not bother to collect the tenant's contribution of €24 per week and who settle for what we pay, and the totally illegal situation of the further top-up. The only way I can stamp that out is by establishing equitable market rents all over the country. If someone can prove an area is out of kilter, we will look at it, but there are unscrupulous people out there. Unless people are willing to give us information, however, we are powerless to prove it. That is always a problem.

With the surplus properties on the market, however, we should be able to secure enough honest providers of property that we should not be in this situation. Because of the €24 charge, however, whether there are two people or 20 people in the house, it is possible that not just landlords are crowding the houses, it is possible tenants are getting a house on rent supplement and are bringing people in. That is a weakness in the system. If there was a differential rent, the tenant would legally be obliged to pay some contribution for every adult in the House.

I agree about refusals of local authority housing where a reasonable offer is made. We must clampdown on that; people must take what is available within reason after a certain number of refusals. It is important, however, that local authorities keep their accommodation in good order and do not place people in the tenancies from hell. I agree with the Senator in principle but we must be careful; I have seen offers being made where the houses were not habitable.

We need a huge degree of change. The rental scheme makes up half of the housing market, with €510 million spent on the rental scheme in 2009, €512 million this year and €465 million next year. I am making the necessary changes, such as the marrying of rent allowance with differential rent schemes. At the moment, rent allowance acts as a disincentive to work. We want this to become more short-term in nature and get local authorities to assume control without discommoding tenants.