Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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485. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if rent allowance will be extended to participants in back to work enterprises who are in the early stages of their businesses and in receipt of low incomes; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13009/14]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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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 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 78,000 rent supplement recipients for which the Government has provided over €344 million for 2014.

A person who is in receipt of rent supplement who commences the back to work enterprise allowance may retain entitlement to rent supplement, subject to the means test, if they are deemed as eligible for the Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS) by a housing authority. The back to work enterprise allowance scheme is designed to encourage people who are dependent on certain social welfare payments to engage in self-employment while allowing them to retain a reducing proportion of their qualifying social welfare payment over two years.

A new applicant for rent supplement who is participating on the Back to Work Enterprise Allowance scheme would not qualify for rent supplement. The Department has no plans to change the conditions of the rent supplement scheme at this time.