Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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Question 174: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs his plans to address the use of the phrase rent allowance not accepted in accommodation advertisements; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35967/06]

Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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Question 176: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs his plans to address the use of the phrase rent allowance not accepted in accommodation advertisements; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35989/06]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 174 and 176 together.

The supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which includes rent supplement, is administered on my behalf by the Community Welfare division of the Health Service Executive. The purpose of the scheme is to provide short-term income support, in the form of a weekly or monthly payment, 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.

Under the rent supplement scheme there is no direct relationship between the State and the landlord. Entitlement is based on the tenant's income support needs with payment generally made directly to the tenant. The tenant's engagement with the Executive usually takes place after the tenant has reached an agreement with the landlord. As such it is not possible to identify if refusal by landlords to accept rent supplement tenants is causing difficulties for those trying to find accommodation.

It is the case however, that significant numbers of new tenancies commence each year with the support of rent supplement. For example, just under 35,000 new cases have been awarded so far this year.

I am aware that some landlords are advertising their property on the internet or in the newspapers and state that they are unwilling to accept rent supplement recipients as tenants.

I am concerned that landlords would refuse a tenancy purely because someone is on a social welfare payment. I have asked my Department to investigate the extent of this practice and to examine if it constitutes possible discrimination. The fact that there are currently over 60,000 rent supplement recipients, an increase of around 15,000 recipients since 2001, does indicate that there are significant numbers of landlords who are willing to accept people in receipt of rent supplement as tenants. Also the fact that almost 35,000 new rent supplement claims were awarded between January 2006 and October 2006 appears to indicate that overall access to accommodation is not proving restrictive for those in need of assistance under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme.