Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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Question 25: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if he will support the introduction of a direct link between eligibility for rent allowance and landlord registration with the Private Residential Tenancies Board; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42555/06]

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) in most cases. My Department is committed to working closely with the PRTB in ensuring that over time, all tenancies where rent supplement is paid comply with the statutory system of tenancy regulation and safeguards. To that end, my Department provides details of rent supplement payments to the PRTB to enable them identify tenancies that are not registered and to take any follow-up action necessary.

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 the tenant. To make this a requirement would delay or in some cases entirely prevent payments of rent supplement to the tenants. 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. I do not wish to penalise tenants for the failure of individual landlords to meet their statutory obligations. In that regard, I am satisfied that the arrangements I have outlined above are currently appropriate.