Aideen Hayden (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I remind the Opposition that the Government is just over two years into its term of office. We intend to serve our full term and there should be no doubt that our commitments in respect of health care will be honoured. On broken promises, I welcome the commitment - made at the launch of the Private Residential Tenancies Board, PRTB, rent index earlier today - by the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, to introduce the Government's deposit protection scheme in this House. When it comes to broken promises, those in opposition should remain silent until they see what the Government actually succeeds in doing.

In the context of the rent index, will the Leader make time available for a debate with the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Burton, on rent supplement. A number of concerns arise in the context of the rent index. While this index is a positive development, the difficulty is that it only provides details for those properties which are registered within the State. Unfortunately, a recent sweep by Dublin City Council of the "flatland" area between the two canals showed that fewer than 40% of the properties surveyed are registered with the PRTB. I am concerned that there are many properties at the lower end of the rental market which are not registered with the PRTB. The tenants who occupy these properties are paying under-the-counter top-up rents for them. The rents listed in the index do not, therefore, reflect the real rents being paid. In the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown area in which I live, according to the citizens information centres, CICs, not one property has been advertised at the relevant rent levels. This indicates that no one in the area is living in a property in respect of which rent supplement is payable. In reality, this is far from the truth. There is evidence to suggest that 50% of tenants are paying top-up rents. This has a real impact on the level of rent supplement being paid. This matter is important in the context of the discussions relating to the budget, which is due to be introduced in October, and I ask the Leader to prioritise it.