Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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256. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the status of the national rents framework and when he will commence and complete the review of differential rent schemes, as mentioned in the current programme for Government. [15725/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Section 31 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 200, which has not yet been commenced, provides for the introduction of a national differential rents framework that will harmonise local authority rent levels nationally, while retaining some discretion for individual authorities to set rents in their own areas.

While a proposed framework has been prepared, I have asked my Department to review it, including transitional arrangements, in the light of the commitment in this regard in the Programme for a Partnership Government. This commitment provides for a review of the disparate systems of differential rents for social housing across local authorities to ensure that housing supports, including the Housing Assistance Payment, are fair and sustainable, prioritise those on the lowest incomes and avoid creating social welfare traps that stop people returning to work or to the private housing market.