Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 78: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs his views on both the large number of persons in receipt of rent supplement and the large sums of money being paid by his Department to landlords under this scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12459/08]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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Rent supplement is administered on my behalf by the Health Service Executive (HSE), as part of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme. The tenant makes the application for rent supplement and the Department's relationship is with the tenant in all cases. Payment is made to the tenant in most cases, it is the property of the tenant in all cases and is specifically for the benefit of the tenant to assist them with their accommodation needs. In the minority of cases where payment is made direct to a landlord, this is done to facilitate the tenant.

Rent supplement has over the years developed beyond the original objective of providing short-term assistance with accommodation. A significant number of people have now come to rely on rent supplement for extended periods, including people on local authority housing lists. For this reason, the scheme has to be viewed in the context of overall housing policy, particularly in the case of long-term claimants.

In response to this situation, the Government has introduced new rental assistance arrangements which include the rental accommodation scheme (RAS). This gives 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. Housing authorities can 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 public/private partnership type rental accommodation scheme.

When the new rental assistance arrangements have been fully implemented it is expected that in excess of 30,000 individuals will have transferred from the rent supplement scheme to the local authorities under the rental accommodation scheme or other social housing schemes. This will enable the rent supplement scheme to revert to its original objective, namely that of a short term income support scheme.

I intend to keep the rent supplement scheme under review and my Department will be working closely with the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government in ensuring that RAS meets its objective of catering for those on long term rent supplementation while enabling rent supplement to return to its original role of a short-term income support.