Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 184: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs his views on improving the system of assessing entitlement to rent support having particular regard to hardship caused to potential applicants; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11332/06]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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The supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which includes rent supplement, is administered on my behalf by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive. Neither I nor my Department has any function in decisions on individual claims. The purpose of the scheme is to provide short-term income support to eligible people living in private rented accommodation whose means are insufficient to meet their accommodation costs and who do not have accommodation available to them from any other source.

To qualify for rent supplement a person must satisfy a number of conditions: the person must be a bona fide tenant, must be habitually resident in this country, must have a housing need and must satisfy a means test. In addition, the executive must be satisfied that the accommodation is suited to the person's needs and the rent payable is within the prescribed limits.

The supplementary welfare allowance scheme is being reviewed as part of my Department's ongoing programme of expenditure reviews. The review is being carried out by a working group chaired by my Department and including the Department of Finance and the Health Service Executive. The review involves a fundamental appraisal of the scheme. All aspects are being examined with a primary focus on considering ways of improving its efficiency and effectiveness. I expect this review to be completed shortly.

In recent years, a significant number of people have come to rely on rent supplements for extended periods, including people on local authority housing waiting lists. In response to this situation, the Government has introduced new rental assistance arrangements giving local authorities specific responsibility for meeting the longer-term housing needs of people receiving rent supplement for 18 months or more, on a phased implementation basis. When fully operational, local authorities will meet the housing needs of these individuals 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.

The rental assistance arrangements will also cater for new applicants for rent supplements and people who have been receiving rent supplement for less than 18 months, so long as the local authority is satisfied that they have a long-term housing need. These people will be eligible for some form of assistance from their local authority under the scheme, whether that is contracted rental accommodation, voluntary housing or a local authority house.

Overall, I consider that the current rent supplement arrangements are sufficient to meet the short-term accommodation needs of applicants and do not cause hardship. Nonetheless, the effectiveness of these arrangements will be re-examined in light of any recommendations made in the forthcoming review.