Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 406: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if all landlords who receive payment from the State by way of rent supplement to tenants are required to be registered with the Private Residential Tenancies Board; and to give the percentage of those landlords who are presently registered with the PRTB. [20533/06]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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The supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which is administered on my behalf by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive, provides for the payment of a rent supplement to assist eligible people who are unable to provide for their immediate accommodation needs from their own resources and who do not have accommodation available to them from any other source.

Under the Residential Tenancies Act 2004, landlords are legally obliged to register tenancies with the Private Residential Tenancies Board (PRTB). It is not a requirement of the rent supplement scheme that landlords must be registered with the PRTB before a rent supplement is paid.

To require the landlords of all rent supplement recipients to be registered with the PRTB could have the effect of delaying payments of rent supplement. In many cases, when a rent supplement claim is being decided the tenancy will not have been registered with the PRTB, as the establishment of the tenancy will be dependent on rent supplement being awarded. Furthermore, there are certain instances where a tenancy qualifying for rent supplement need not be registered with the PRTB, for example, in the case of renting a room in a house. My Department does not maintain a record of the number of landlords who are registered with the PRTB. However, my Department is committed to working with the PRTB, insofar as possible, to ensure compliance with the new system of tenancy regulation and safeguards.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 407: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the reason his Department have requested in respect of workers at a company (details supplied) in County Mayo that they seek full time employment instead of being allowed to sign on during short term working; if the situation will be investigated in the circumstances; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20558/06]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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To qualify for unemployment payments a person must have lost employment and must satisfy the conditions of being available for and genuinely seeking work. Subject to certain conditions it is possible for a person to qualify for payment for part of a week while being employed for the rest of the week. Special arrangements exist in relation to systematic short-time working were this occurs in a particular employment. I am not aware of any particular difficulty in relation to the workers concerned. If the Deputy is aware of such difficulties, I will have the matter further examined.

Where an unemployed person is seeking work in his or her usual employment and there is a reasonable prospect of securing work of that nature, he or she would normally satisfy the conditions for receipt of payment. However, if there is no employment available within a specialised field within a reasonable period of time, the unemployed person would be expected to broaden his or her search so as to include other types of employment. After a period of unemployment, a person would be expected to accept any employment for which he or she is qualified.

Where a person is dissatisfied with a decision made by a Deciding Officer he or she may appeal this decision to the independent Social Welfare Appeals Office.