Pat O'Neill (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State. My question relates to rent allowance. In 2005, we spent €369 million on rent allowance. Last year, that figure had risen to €500 million. We are paying more than half a billion euro on rent allowance and 98,000 people are now in receipt of the allowance. I accept that it is a necessary evil but in some cases it is being abused. I welcome the changes to the rent supplement proposed by the Minister of State.

I ask that an audit be done. Some people go on local authority housing lists simply in order to qualify for rent allowance. If they were offered a local authority house they would not take it. The Minister of State has said there are approximately 100,000 people on housing lists. In my own county of Kilkenny, there are 3,000 people on the local authority housing list. Of those, 2,000 have applied for housing in the city. We have no unfinished housing estates around Kilkenny city. Therefore, we have no hope of housing these people because we do not have the capital funds to purchase houses and the council has very little income from rental properties.

I ask the Minister of State to carry out an audit of the rent supplement scheme in each local authority so that a genuine list of people who want a local authority house can be produced. Some people are using the local authority housing list simply to get rent supplement.