Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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Question 344: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the position in relation to an application for rent supplement by a person (details supplied) in County Dublin; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19107/07]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, 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.

Rent supplements are subject to a limit on the amount of rent that an applicant for rent supplement may incur. These rent limits are set at levels that enable the different categories of eligible tenant households to secure and retain basic suitable rented accommodation, having regard to the different rental market conditions that prevail in various parts of the State.

The Executive has advised that the person concerned applied for a rent supplement in January 2007 but was refused as her rent was in excess of the rent limit for her family size. The Executive has further advised that the person's circumstances have since changed and she has also appealed the decision to refuse her rent supplement to the Executive's Appeals Office. The Executive's Appeals Officer allowed her appeal in view of her changed circumstances and the Executive was notified of the decision on 26th June. Arrangements are now being made to have rent supplement put into payment.