Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will provide a list of local authorities which regard foster care allowance as reckonable income when calculating rent; the length of time this has been the practice and the number of foster families affected; if he will immediately instruct them to cease this practice; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40277/12]

Sandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will provide a list of all local authorities who take foster care allowance into consideration as means when calculating rent; if it is acceptable to do so when foster care allowance is paid to the foster carers for the benefit of the foster child and is not an income or an income support; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40322/12]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 285 and 286 together.

My Department does not collect the information sought. The making and amending of rent schemes is the responsibility of housing authorities as an integral part of the housing management functions and there are many different rent schemes in operation across housing authorities. The decisions on whether or not to disregard either a proportion of income or particular sources of income for the purposes of calculating rents are matters for each individual housing authority to consider in accordance with their own rent scheme.