Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 18 June 2014
74. Deputy Dominic Hannigan asked the Minister for Social Protection her views on extending the recently announced initiative to ensure that families at risk of losing their private rented accommodation can access help through their CWO in the Dublin region will be extended to County Meath; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [26201/14]
View answerThe purpose of rent supplement is to provide short-term support to eligible people living in private rented accommodation whose means are insufficient to meet their accommodation costs and who do not have accommodation available to them from any other source. The overall aim is to provide short-term assistance, and not to act as an alternative to the other social housing schemes operated by the Exchequer. There are currently approximately 76,000 rent supplement recipients for which the Government has provided over €344 million for 2014.
All prospective tenants, including those seeking to access rent supplement, particularly in urban areas, are now finding it increasingly difficult to secure appropriate accommodation due to the reduced availability of rental properties.
In view of the current supply difficulties being experienced in the Dublin region, the Dublin Region Homeless Executive in conjunction with the Dublin local authorities and voluntary organisations have agreed a protocol with the Department so that families at risk of losing existing private rented accommodation can have more timely and appropriate interventions made on their behalf. It is intended that this arrangement will be reviewed in the third quarter of the year.
While there are no plans to extend this arrangement to other local authority areas at this time, 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 the accommodation needs of families are met. Staff in the Department’s Community Welfare Service have discretionary powers to award a supplement for rental purposes in exceptional cases where it appears that the circumstances of the case so warrant, for example, when dealing with applicants who are homeless or who are at risk of losing their tenancy. Such cases are examined on a case by case basis having regard to the situation presented.
Finally, I want to advise the Deputy that a new rent limit review has commenced within the Department and will feed into the budgetary process. This review will involve a comprehensive analysis of information from a range of sources including rental tenancies registered with the Private Residential Tenancies Board (PRTB), the Central Statistics Office rental indices and websites advertising rental properties. The Department will also be seeking the views from a number of stakeholders in this area including the local staff administering the scheme, colleagues in the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, the Private Residential Tenancies Board and non-Government organisations such as Threshold, Focus Ireland, the Simon Community and Society of St Vincent de Paul.
