Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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690. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the procedure by which local authorities may amend their differential rent scheme; and if it is an executive or reserve function. [2821/19]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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The right of local authorities to set and collect rents on their dwellings is laid down in section 58 of the Housing Act 1966.  The making or amending of such schemes is an executive function and does not require the approval of the elected members. It is subject to broad principles laid down by my Department in Circular letter HRT 3/2002 of 6 March 2002, which states that rent levels should reflect tenants’ ability to pay.

Considerable work has been carried out by my Department in developing a draft national differential rents framework for the purposes of section 31 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009, which has not been commenced to date.  Such a framework has as its main aim the harmonisation of local authority rents, including a set of standardised income disregards, whilst retaining the general principle of rents related to household income.  Under section 31, the making and revocation of a rent scheme would become reserved functions, while the charging of rents would remain an executive function.

This work is now being examined further in the light of the broader commitment given in the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, to review the disparate systems of differential rent for social housing in place across local authorities. The overall objective is to ensure that housing supports are fair and sustainable and prioritise those on lowest incomes. 

I expect that the review will be completed in the near future.