It is important that I set out a few facts. What is rent supplement? Rent supplement is a short-term emergency payment. It is not for a long-term housing need. When I introduced a number of changes within the supplementary welfare scheme - I indicated several - I met a number of the social partners, all the NGOs outside the partnership process and members of the committee, and I discussed them within my parliamentary party and my Department. Arising from a number of those issues the views of everyone were taken into consideration.
The CWOs apply the regulations on behalf of my Department. They are employed by the Department of Health and Children, normally through the health boards. The CWOs are, perhaps, the only group of people with a huge amount of personal discretion. That is the nature of the scheme. The guidelines issued by me arising out of the changes took up several pages and are available to CWOs in a massive book. They are very comprehensive and cannot be taken in isolation. They have to be taken in tandem with any changes implemented.
Members spoke about abuse of the system and said I am not doing anything about it. I answered a parliamentary questioned tabled by Deputy Ring on the matter last week or the week before. One of the issues arising out of the SWA Vote, administered on my behalf by another Department, is that it does not have direct accesss to the Chief State Solicitor's office. Therefore, we cannot prosecute on behalf of the State. I am about to change that and I am taking advice on the legalities of the issue and its implementation. There is a section within the existing guidelines which gives that discretion to CWOs. They do not have to write in a book, make notes or do anything like that. What they do is their business. They advise the Department of their decisions in a quarterly review that is forwarded through the boards to my Department, where they indicate what decisions were made by them under exceptional needs and supplementary welfare from a statistical point of view. It is important for us to ascertain the kind of issues involved.
Last year I changed the SWA and we looked at rent capping. It was said to me that people would be homeless as a consequence of it, but that is incorrect. The CWOs, through their superintendents, contacted my Department where there were particular cases outside the parameters of the regulations and guidelines. Those were sanctioned by my Department. In particular cases, everybody appreciates people have particular difficulties. Therefore, the flexibilities are not only within the ambit of the CWO but also within my Department in sanctioning those changes.
Let us get down to a few basics. People talk about the homeless and rent supplement. People who are determined to be homeless, under the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, are entitled to rent supplement. Members should stop talking about homeless people because they are supported within this scheme. Those over 65 years of age are exempt from the changes of the six-month rule. Those on a housing list are exempt from the six-month rule. I bet that the majority of those about whom Deputy Ryan spoke are on a housing list or have made an application to their local authority if there is a case of over-crowding in the home or of dysfunction, or a difficulty within the home. For example, Deputy Seán Ryan spoke of people in, perhaps, a difficult marital/partnership relationship. That is an emergency. Under section 31, the CWO is, more than likely, allowed - if not, I would question it - to facilitate someone in that difficulty. Those who are vulnerable, those in danger and those who have difficult relationships will be facilitated outside the ambit of the six-month rule.
Let us talk about people who are employed. Those in full-time employment were never entitled to rent supplement. What happened was the wife who was not working made an application and this circumvented the scheme. One cannot circumvent the scheme. I applaud some people who will do their level best to get around every regulation and all legislation. We all know about that, and that is life.
On the issue of the housing lists, I agree there were some teething problems. A number of county councils, CWOs, and health boards have come together and worked out a practical way of dealing with these issues on the ground. One of the issues is that a universal application form is favoured for rent supplement for local authority housing. That is a practical idea which came from the housing officers and the CWOs and it started in Cork. The health board in my area is now looking at that. Those practical issues are being addressed on the ground where there is real interaction between the housing authorities and the CWOs. That interaction is important. I appreciate that there are teething difficulties and there may be blips, but on the basis of good co-operation the matter is progressing.
Those on invalidity pension and those on disability allowance are exempt from the six-month rule. Given the number exempted from the six-month rule, the Department of Finance might question why I introduced the rule in the first place. I have considered many difficulties that may arise in the rolling out of the scheme. The scheme was rolled out about four weeks ago and people are interacting at local level, which is the best way forward.
There are other issues involved. Where does one go from here? One cannot reform in isolation, and I will not do so. On the one hand, I am asked to deal with the existing difficulties of abuse, which we all know about but find it very difficult to deal with. I have indicated to members what I propose to do. I have indicated the flexibilities and the exemptions within the six-month rule. This cannot be done in isolation on the basis that I am not a housing authority. I am dealing with a housing need but that is being done in splendid isolation, often from the housing authorities. We have all agreed that should not happen. We are working with the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government.
Members may have read in the newspapers that the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Noel Ahern, was not consulted. I met the Minister of State, Deputy Noel Ahern, ad infinitum in a personal capacity and there were meetings between our officials who have been working on this issue since 1996, before the Minister of State, Deputy Noel Ahern, was appointed. Equated to that, the Minister of State is not at the Cabinet but the Minister for the Environment, Heritage, and Local Government, Deputy Cullen, is and he has been more than acquainted——