Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 308: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the overall savings to the State in each of the years since the inception of the rental accommodation scheme arising from the transfer of tenants to that scheme from the rent supplement scheme. [42478/10]

Michael Finneran (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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The core objectives of the Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS) are to reform the approach towards providing accommodation within the private rented sector for long-term dependents on rent supplement and to enhance the response of housing authorities to meeting long-term housing need.

Funding for the RAS is provided by a transfer of monies from the Department of Social Protection's (DSP) Vote to my Department's Vote. Monies are provided on an exchequer neutral basis to meet the costs of persons transferring from the Rent Supplement Scheme to the RAS. The issue of savings does not therefore arise.

The total budget for RAS in 2010 is €125 million, which represents a 38.1% increase on the budget provision for 2009 (€90.5m). The €125m budget provided for RAS in 2010 is intended to support the costs of all existing rent supplement households transferred to the scheme previous to 2010 and to fund the costs of rents of additional new transfers to the scheme during the year.

My Department has supported external review of RAS undertaken by the Centre for Housing Research, as well as undertaking an Interim Value for Money and Policy Review of the scheme. In line with the Department of Finance guidelines on the latter, the completed review has been the subject of an external evaluation and will be published in the New Year.