Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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Question 43: To ask the Minister for Social Protection if there are estimated numbers for those who will transfer from rent supplement to the rental accommodation scheme in the lifetime of this Government; if she has talked to the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government regarding the challenges that local authorities will encounter in sourcing sufficient RAS houses to satisfy the need; the outcome of those discussions; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [15317/11]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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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 any other source. At the end of December 2010 there were 97,260 people in receipt of rent supplement, an increase of 63% in the last three years. The rental accommodation scheme (RAS), which was introduced in 2004, gives local authorities specific responsibility for meeting the longer term housing needs of people receiving rent supplement for 18 months or more. Details of these cases are notified regularly by the Department to the local authorities through the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government. Local authorities meet the housing needs of these individuals through a range of approaches including: the traditional social housing, the voluntary housing sector and, in particular, the RAS.

At the end of 2007, there were 32,123 rent supplement recipients who were in payment for 18 months and while the number decreased to 31,667 at the end of 2008 it increased again to 35,133 at the end of 2009. There are now 48,073 currently in payment for 18 months or more. Latest figures from the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government show that at the end of April 2011, a total of 33,554 transfers from rent supplement to local authorities have occurred since 2005. Of these 19,074 were housed directly under RAS and 14,480 were accommodated under other social housing options. The target number of transfers to local authorities set by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government for 2011 is for 5,500 tenants to transfer.

As the Deputy is aware the Programme for Government contains specific commitments in relation to the rent supplement scheme including to progressively reduce reliance on rent supplement, with eligible recipients moving to the rental accommodation scheme. In this regard I and my Department are working closely with the Minister for Housing and Planning and the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government to accelerate the rate of transfer of long-term rent supplement claimants to RAS and other sources of local authority provided housing.