Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Question 55: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the number of persons receiving the rent supplement for 18 months or more who have been passed on to a local authority for a housing assessment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17171/05]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 72: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the number of persons who have been availing of the rent supplement for 18 months or more; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17169/05]

Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Question 85: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the number of persons in receipt of the rent supplement for 18 months or more who were passed on to the local authority for a housing assessment and who have had their housing needs met; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17172/05]

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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Question 107: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the arrangements which have been put in place between his Department and the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to satisfy the recently announced criteria that a person in receipt of rent assistance for a period of 18 months will be offered a local authority property. [16951/05]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 122: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the progress made on the long-term initiative for rent supplement tenants; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17168/05]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 55, 72, 85, 107 and 122 together.

The supplementary welfare allowance scheme is administered on my behalf by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive. It provides for the payment of a weekly or monthly rent or mortgage interest supplement to assist eligible people who are unable to provide for their accommodation costs from their own resources and who do not have accommodation available from any other source.

As of 13 May last, there were 58,308 households in receipt of assistance under the rent supplement scheme. Just over half of these, almost 30,000 tenants, have been on the scheme for 18 months or more. Expenditure on rent supplements was almost €332 million in 2003 and just under €354 million in 2004. I have provided €369 million in this year's Estimates for this scheme.

As a significant number of people have come to rely on rent supplements on a long-term basis over recent years, the Government announced an initiative in July 2004 aimed at meeting these long-term housing needs. The new system gives local authorities responsibility for meeting long-term housing assistance needs, including the needs of those people on rent supplements for 18 months or longer.

These needs will be met through a range of approaches, including the traditional range of social housing options, the voluntary housing sector and, in particular, a new public private partnership type rental accommodation scheme. A sum of €19 million has been transferred from my Department's Vote to that of the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government this year to help finance this initiative. The new arrangements are currently being implemented in seven local authorities, including Dublin, Galway and Limerick City Councils and South Dublin County Council. These seven lead authorities include some of the most extensive urban areas in the State.

My Department and the Health Service Executive actively assist the local authorities and the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government in this process, for example, that Department has been supplied with full information on the 30,000 people who have been on rent supplement for 18 months or more. My Department has also provided details to each of the seven lead local authorities of people in this category who reside in the relevant local authority functional area.

The Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government has appointed programme managers to assist these lead authorities with the implementation of the new arrangements. Thereafter these managers will be available to support other authorities over the implementation period. Implementation groups in the seven lead authority areas have been established to ensure effective ongoing liaison and co-operation locally between housing authorities, Health Service Executive areas and other agencies. The Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government has indicated that the lead local authorities are on target to transfer the first eligible rent supplement recipients to the rental accommodation scheme within the next few weeks. The new arrangements will be initiated in all local authority areas by the end of 2005.

The aim of the new system is to minimise ongoing dependence on rent supplement by progressing to a situation where suitable long-term accommodation is available for all who need it and where the rent supplement scheme is not necessary other than for short-term support. This will be achieved within a period of three years from commencement of the new arrangements in each local authority and in any event no later than September 2008.

These new arrangements will provide an additional source of good quality accommodation to meet long-term housing needs. The scheme will involve structured arrangements to secure long-term availability of privately rented accommodation, particularly accommodation currently occupied by tenants in receipt of rent supplement under the SWA scheme and to encourage the supply of additional accommodation. Overall, the new rental assistance arrangements represent a major step forward in supporting people with long-term housing needs. All the relevant agencies are co-operating actively to make the system work successfully.

The supplementary welfare allowance rent supplement scheme will continue to provide short-term income support for eligible people who are unable to meet their immediate accommodation needs through their own resources.