Kathryn Reilly (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 34:

In page 63, to delete lines 31 to 34 and substitute the following:“(2) (a) A housing authority may, if a tenant has refused to pay rent for a specified period of no less than 3 months and has refused to engage with the relevant authority, make a request to the Minister for Social Protection to deduct from net scheme payments the amount of rent payable to the authority by the relevant recipient concerned and to transmit the amount deducted to the authority.”.

These amendments relate to the topical and controversial issue of rent reductions. Amendment No. 34 limits the authority's ability to seek deductions to cases where tenants have refused to engage and there has been no payment for three months.
Amendment No. 35 states that deductions cannot be made if, under reasonable consideration, they would cause undue hardship. Amendment No. 36 seeks to limit the authority's ability to seek deductions to cases where tenants have refused to engage on rent arrears over a period of three months. Amendment No. 37 limits the amounts that can be charged as a deduction for rent arrears to no more than 5% of a person's income and amendment No. 38 states that deductions cannot be made if, under reasonable consideration, they would cause undue hardship.