Martin Conway (Fine Gael)

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after ''Seanad Éireann'' and substitute the following:

"— acknowledges that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the European Social Charter recognises the right to housing as part of the right to an adequate standard of living;

— recognises the vital role played by the rent supplement scheme in addressing the accommodation needs of up to 93,000 households for which the Government has provided €436 million in 2012;

— affirms that the purpose of rent supplement is to provide short-term income support to those who do not have accommodation available to them from another source and it is not intended as a long term housing solution;

— has concerns over the long term reliance on rent supplement with approximately 55,000 recipients having now been in payment for more than 18 months;

— agrees that the recent maximum rent limits introduced from 1 January 2012 are in line with the most up to date market data available;

— affirms that officials from the Department of Social Protection dealing with rent supplement tenants will continue to ensure that their accommodation needs are met and that the introduction of the revised rent limits have not and will not lead to any incidence of homelessness;

— affirms that rent supplement is an income support specifically for the benefit of tenants to assist them with their accommodation needs and there is no direct relationship between the Department of Social Protection and landlords;

— acknowledges that if the Department of Social Protection were to become involved in negotiations of rental agreements with landlords, the efficiency of the scheme would be adversely affected;

— agrees that any practice whereby landlords would seek cash payments from tenants in excess of that agreed under the rent supplement scheme is an offence and that representatives of the Department of Social Protection have specific legislative powers to deal with such offences;

— recognises that in cases where parents have joint custody of a child, the needs of both parents to have adequate accommodation are taken into account when determining entitlement to rent supplement;

— acknowledges that rent supplement should revert to its previous role of providing short-term income support for those temporarily unemployed;

— welcomes the transfer of 39,910 households from rent supplement under the Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS) since 2005 to date;

— notes the publication of a new housing policy framework statement by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government and the Minister for Housing and Planning in June 2011;

— welcomes Government agreement in principle to transfer responsibility for the provision of rental assistance to persons with a long term housing need from the Department of Social Protection currently provided through rent supplement to housing authorities using a new Housing Assistance Payment (HAP);

— notes that a commencement date for HAP of 1st January 2013 has been approved subject to further consideration of the matter by Government;

— notes that the Government has established a multi-agency steering group to develop proposals to give effect to this transfer. The group consists of representatives from the Departments of the Environment, Community and Local Government; Social Protection; Public Expenditure and Reform; Revenue; the County and City Managers Association, and the Housing Agency;

— welcomes the announcement by NAMA of its commitment to providing up to 2,000 units for social housing through the use of a social housing leasing initiative;

— notes that the Minister for Housing and Planning has established a Steering Group comprising officials of the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government, NAMA and the Housing Agency to oversee the process of obtaining as many of these units as possible for social leasing.".

I wish to share time with Senator Bradford.