Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)

I thank Senator Daly for raising this matter. The purpose of rent supplement 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 scheme is intended as a temporary income support payment and is not designed to be a medium to long-term housing support or a permanent solution to a person's housing needs.

Under the legislative provisions governing rent supplement, the Department's relationship is with the tenant who in turn makes the application for rent supplement and payment is made to the tenant. Rent supplement is specifically for the benefit of tenants to assist them with their accommodation needs. There is no direct relationship between the landlord and the Department in the administration of the scheme.

Under the current arrangements, even with direct payment, landlords must collect the tenant contribution towards the rent, a minimum of €120 per month. The amount of rent supplement payable depends on the tenant's income. In some cases tenants pay only the minimum contribution while in other cases tenants make an additional contribution to their rent based on their financial circumstances. For example, where a person is in part-time employment and receives just 10% of his or her rent directly from the State, the landlord would receive the 10% directly while collecting the 90% from the tenant. Account will be taken of cases where a tenant is in a lease agreement which has a number of months to go before cessation. While tenants will be expected to try and renegotiate their rent, where this is not possible payments at the old rate may continue. However, once the lease has expired the tenant will be expected to find suitable accommodation at or below the new limits in force.

If the Department were to become involved in the negotiations of rental agreements directly with landlords, the efficiency of the scheme would be significantly affected. For example, the Department would potentially have to create a formal relationship with some 96,000 additional clients, the landlords. This would involve greater complexity and significant resources to deal with a new set of third parties. There are no plans to amend the scheme so that rent supplement is the entitlement of the landlord.

It would not be an effective use of resources to have departmental staff negotiating rental agreements for those with a short-term need who generally enter the scheme with an existing tenancy agreement in place and leave again when they re-enter the workforce.

The Senator will be aware that the Government has effectively two initiatives to deal with long-term reliance on rent supplement. The rental accommodation scheme is in operation since 2004 and the new housing policy initiative was announced on 16 June 2011 by my colleagues the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government and the Minister of State with responsibility for housing and planning. Both initiatives give the local authorities specific responsibility for meeting the long-term housing needs of people receiving rent supplement. Latest figures show that since its inception, over 37,700 rent supplement tenancies have now been transferred from rent supplement to the rental accommodation scheme and other social housing options.