Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 412: To ask the Minister for Social Protection his plans to reform rent supplement to enable the payment to be made directly to the landlord instead of the tenant [39267/10]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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The purpose of rent supplement 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 any other source. The scheme is intended as a temporary income support payment and is not designed to be a medium to long term housing support or a permanent solution to a person's housing needs. Rent supplement has successfully responded to the dramatic increased demand for income support to support accommodation costs. There are currently 96,500 people in receipt of rent supplement, an increase of 62% since the end of December 2007.

Current legislation already provides 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 recipient, at the tenant's request and is subject to the consent of the HSE. Approximately 20% of rent supplement payments are currently paid to a person other than the tenant. Under the legislative provisions governing rent supplement, the Department's relationship is with the tenant; the tenant makes the application for rent supplement and payment is made to the tenant. Rent supplement is specifically for the benefit of tenants to assist them with their accommodation needs. To remove the right of the tenant to receive this payment by making it payable only to the landlord would require legislative amendment and I have no plans at present to make this change.

Under the current arrangements, even with direct payment, landlords still have to collect the tenant contribution towards their rent (a minimum of €104 per month). The amount of rent supplement payable depends on the tenant's income; in some cases tenants pay only the minimum contribution while for others the tenant makes an additional contribution to their rent based on their financial circumstances. For example, where a person is in part-time income and receives just 10% of his or her rent directly from the State, the landlord would receive the 10% directly whilst still having to collect the 90% from the tenant.

The efficiency of the scheme would be significantly affected if this arrangement were to be changed for example CWO's would potentially have to create a formal relationship with some 96,500 additional clients, the landlords. This would involve greater complexity and significant resources to deal with a new set of third parties. In particular, it would also result in CWOs being drawn into disputes between both landlords and tenants. There may also be financial and control implications in cases where a tenant moves address and neither the landlord nor tenant inform the Department. Similarly, where a tenant is no longer eligible for rent supplement and the Department ceases paying the landlord, the Department may find itself involved in eviction proceedings.

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. It is also open to the landlord to bring to the attention of the HSE any instance where a tenant is receiving rent supplement but is not paying their rent. Where a Community Welfare Officer becomes aware that a person receiving rent supplement is not using that supplement for the purpose for which it was intended the matter investigated.

Since 2004 local authorities have specific responsibility for meeting the longer-term housing needs of people receiving rent supplement for 18 months or more. Local authorities are now meeting 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 the rental accommodation scheme (RAS). In such cases the local authority has a direct contractual relationship with the landlord in RAS tenancies and as part of that contract the local authority pays rent directly to the landlord.