Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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82. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will provide details of the discretion that is available to community welfare officers in the area of rent allowance and rent caps in view of the fact that a crisis is developing as a result of dramatically increasing rents; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30932/14]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The purpose of rent supplement is to provide short-term income support to eligible people living in private rented accommodation. There are approximately 76,000 rent supplement recipients for which the Government has provided over €344 million for 2014. Prospective tenants, including those seeking to access rent supplement, particularly in urban areas, are finding it increasingly difficult to secure appropriate accommodation due to the reduced availability of rental properties.

A review of the maximum rent limits has commenced and will feed into the budgetary process. This review involves a comprehensive analysis of information from a range of external sources in addition to seeking the views from a number of stakeholders including staff, relevant Departments and Agencies and non-Government organisations such as Threshold, Focus Ireland and the Society of St Vincent de Paul.

In view of the current supply difficulties, the Department has agreed a protocol with the Dublin local authorities and voluntary organisations so that families on rent supplement who are at risk of losing their accommodation can have more timely and appropriate interventions made on their behalf. A key element of these arrangements is the statutory discretion available, under Article 38 of S.I. 412 of 2007, to officers to award a supplement at a rate higher than the prevailing maximum rent limits where the circumstances of the case so warrant.

A notice reminding all staff of their statutory discretionary power to award a supplement for rental purposes in exceptional cases, for example, when dealing with applicants who are at risk of losing their tenancy, has recently been circulated. I can assure the Deputy that officers administering rent supplement throughout the country have considerable experience in dealing with customers and make every effort to ensure that their accommodation needs are met.