Vol. 576 No. 6
59 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for Finance when he will introduce a scheme whereby tenants renting local authority houses can claim tax relief on the rent they are paying in cases in which such tenants are paying rents to the equivalent of a mortgage; and if his attention has been drawn to the fact that a motion to this effect was passed at the 10 November 2003 meeting of Fingal County Council. [28477/03]
As the Deputy may be aware, responsibility for rent schemes was devolved to local authorities in August 1986. The principles governing rent schemes were set out broadly as follows: the rent payable should be related to income and a smaller proportion of income should be required from low income households; allowances should be made for dependent children including those under 21 years of age in full-time education; a contribution towards rent should be required from subsidiary earners in the household; provision should be included for the acceptance of a lower rent than that required under the terms of the scheme in exceptional cases where payment of the normal rent would give rise to hardship; and appropriate local factors should be taken into account, including the costs of the maintenance and management of the stock of rented dwellings and the adequacy of the rental income to meet such costs.
Within the broad principles outlined above, authorities have discretion as to the types of income to be taken into account in the assessment of rents and how to deal with hardship cases, poverty traps and any other anomalies that arise in individual cases.
By definition, local authority rents should reflect ability to pay. They bear no relation to economic rents in the private sector. Based on the most recent returns from local authorities the average weekly rent in 2002 was €29.62 per week.
