Aideen Hayden (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I too welcome the news that the heads of the adoption (information and tracing) Bill will be adopted by Cabinet and acknowledge the work of a number of people including my colleague, Senator Ivana Bacik, and the Adoption Authority of Ireland on this issue. I also note some of the issues the Adoption Authority of Ireland has noted it considers need to be addressed. We need to be mindful that we go as far as we can with this legislation.

I agree with Senator Zappone, and I have said it already as did Senator Bradford, that we need to and should have a pre-budget debate in this House on the issue of public expenditure and the important headlines for the budget and so forth. Two weeks ago we passed legislation which prevents discrimination against rent supplement tenants in securing accommodation based on their source of income. It was perhaps a little noted part of the Employment Equality (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill, with which we were dealing at the time. Could we have a debate on rent supplement? It is fine to put in place well meaning legislation preventing discrimination and I know the Minister of State, Deputy Ó Ríordáin, is keen that the legislation should be effective. However, I have a number of concerns, first of which is the adequacy of rent supplement. It is inadequate to secure or keep accommodation. There are still inordinate delays, although some progress has been made, in processing rent supplement claims and the manner in which the scheme is administered. My problem is that given all these issues, there is no way someone in receipt of rent supplement could not be discriminated against on purely legitimate grounds, namely, the manner in which the payment is made. I ask the Leader to arrange a debate with the Minister concerned to look again at the rent supplement scheme on which so many tens of thousands in this country depend for their home.