Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Social Protection if her attention has been drawn to the fact that rent supplement recipients are being told to get the Private Residential Tenancy Board to confirm if their landlord is registered with them, however the PRTB will not confirm this, citing data protection; and if she will confirm if this is a requirement for rent supplement. [44356/12]

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Social Protection her views that if registration with the Private Residential Tenancy Board is a condition for receipt of rent allowance for specific property then her Department should liaise directly with the PRTB rather than the applicant. [44357/12]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 308 and 309 together.

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. The overall aim is to provide short term assistance, and not to act as an alternative to the other social housing schemes operated by the Exchequer. There are currently approximately 90,000 rent supplement recipients for which the Government has provided €436 million for 2012.

Registration with the Private Residential Tenancies Board (PRTB) is not a condition for payment of rent supplement. Landlords are legally obliged to register tenancies with the PRTB within one month from the start date of the tenancy or at a later date on payment of an increased fee. For this reason, it is not practicable for the Department to insist that a tenancy be registered with the PRTB before payment of rent supplement can be made. There are also instances where a rent supplement tenancy need not be registered with the PRTB, for example, in the case of renting a room in a house or where a property is owner occupied.

The Department works closely with the PRTB to help ensure that rent supplement tenancies comply with the statutory system of tenancy regulation and safeguards. The Department advises the PRTB of all new rent supplemented tenancies to assist them in implementing tenancy regulations and co-operates in any initiatives taken by the PRTB to ensure compliance with the provisions of the Residential Tenancies Act.