Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Fine Gael)
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Question 404: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the position regarding a matter (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25258/10]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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The purpose of rent supplement is to provide short-term income support to individuals who cannot meet the cost of their accommodation from their own resources. The Department's relationship is with the tenant who makes the application for rent supplement and, in general, the payment is made to the tenant. Legislation does, however, provide for the making of a rent supplement payment to another person (e.g. a relative, a landlord or landlord's agent) on behalf of the tenant. This type of arrangement can be put in place at the tenant's request, subject to the consent of the Community Welfare Officer. The arrangement can be revoked at the tenant's request or withdrawn by the Community Welfare Officer. Some twenty per cent of rent supplement payments are paid to a person other than the recipient.

Where a Community Welfare Officer becomes aware that a person receiving rent supplement is not using that supplement for the purpose for which it is intended, payment of the supplement is suspended and the matter investigated. Any overpayment of rent supplement incurred in circumstances of this kind may be recoverable from the tenant. Where a landlord has a grievance in relation to the non-payment of rent by a tenant, s/he may apply to the Private Residential Tenancies Board to have the dispute resolved through the Board's dispute resolution process.