Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 251: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the checks that are carried out to ascertain if people have been accused of, alleged to be or involved in anti-social behaviour in any other tenancy that they may have had before they were approved rent allowance in another part of the country; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [47912/09]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The purpose of the rent supplement scheme is to provide short-term support 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 another source. Social Welfare legislation provides the Health Service Executive with the authority to refuse, suspend or terminate payment of a rent supplement in the case of a person who has been required to deliver up possession of a dwelling provided by a housing authority or an approved body where the reasons for that requirement include anti-social behaviour or the interests of good estate management.

In the case of private rented accommodation, tenancy arrangements involve a contract between the landlord and tenant and tenant behaviour is a matter for the landlord in the first instance. There are a number of avenues open to landlords in such cases, including the mediation service for landlords and tenants operated by the Private Residential Tenancies Board and/or recourse to the Garda Síochána and/or the Courts in relation to the enforcement of the law in dealing with anti-social behaviour. If necessary, the landlord may seek termination of the tenancy which, if effected, would result in the termination of rent supplement. I am satisfied that existing measures in relation to rent supplement are adequate and I have no plans to make any changes to social welfare legislation in this regard.