Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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178. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will provide clarity on the ability of local authorities to provide a rent cap on pensioners rent rates; the reason local authorities will currently only apply a cap where a pensioner is living in a designated OPD; and his views on whether this is unfair as pensioners are being punished for the lack of availability of OPDs at local authority level. [27661/24]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Local authorities set and collect rents on their dwellings in accordance with section 58 of the Housing Act 1966. The making or amending of such rent schemes is generally a matter for local authorities within broad principles set out by my Department, including that rent levels should be based on income and reflect tenants’ ability to pay.

Local discretion and flexibility are inherent in the devolved administration of rent schemes and different approaches are taken to rent setting across local authorities. Accordingly, decisions regarding how the rent payable is calculated, including arrangements for the provision of any rent cap on pensioners’ rent rates, are matters for individual local authorities in line with the Differential Rent Scheme that it has in place.