Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 167: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the extent to which she has examined the annual cost of rent support; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25597/09]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The purpose of the rent supplement scheme is to provide short-term income support to eligible persons living in private rented accommodation, whose means are insufficient to meet their accommodation costs and who do not have accommodation available to them from another source.

There are currently almost 88,800 recipients of rent supplement, a 49% increase since the end of 2007. The published estimate of expenditure for 2009 for rent supplement is €490.4 million, an increase of €50.7 million on the outturn of expenditure in 2008. Expenditure on rent supplement is closely monitored on a monthly basis taking into account trends in recipient numbers, average monthly payments and savings arising from the supplementary budget measures.

The recent Supplementary Budget provided that the weekly minimum contribution payable towards rent be increased from €18 to €24 a week, with effect from 1 June 2009. It also provided that payments currently being mad e to existing rent supplement tenants be reduced by 8% from the same date. Other changes in the Supplementary Budget provided that new maximum rent limits apply to all new claimants, from 1 June 2009, to reflect the general reductions in private sector rent levels.

The most recent data published by the CSO, shows that rents in the private sector have fallen by almost 11% since November 2008 and by almost 20% in the past year. It is essential therefore that state support for tenants who form a substantial section of the rental market, does not give rise to inflated rental prices.

In the current economic climate it is difficult to examine estimated expenditure into the future. It is expected, based on current expenditure trends that the overall 2009 allocation for the Department will be adequate. Developments in relation to current year expenditure will continue to be closely monitored.