Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 28 April 2004
116 Ms Lynch asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the role her Department plays in the interdepartmental planning group on future rent assistance; the submission her Department has made to the group; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [12049/04]
Amharc ar fhreagraSubject to certain conditions, the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which is administered on behalf of my Department by the health boards, provides for the payment of a weekly or monthly supplement in respect of rent to eligible people in the State whose means are insufficient to meet their accommodation needs and who do not have accommodation available from any other source.
In recognition of the fact that the rent supplement scheme had, in effect, become a scheme of long-term housing support for many people, the Government set up a working group to rationalise current arrangements for housing support and to ensure that long-term housing needs are addressed through providing appropriate solutions rather than through the social welfare system. An interdepartmental planning group was established to draw up detailed proposals for the implementation of revised arrangements. The group, which was chaired by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, also comprised representatives from my Department, the Department of Finance and others.
Discussions have been underway in the planning group for some time about putting in place the most appropriate arrangements to meet the housing needs of people who would otherwise have to rely on a long-term basis on supplementary welfare allowance rent supplements. My Department has played a full part in these discussions and in the research that underpinned them. Arising from the work of this group, an action plan is now being finalised. The action plan will include criteria for determining which categories of rent supplement recipient will be eligible to have their needs addressed by the housing authorities, an implementation time scale, financing and other matters.
While there is full agreement that people with long-term housing needs require a housing response rather than a social welfare payment, and considerable progress has been made in developing practical proposals in that regard, all the details of how and when the new arrangements will be implemented in practice have not yet been finalised. Discussions between my Department and the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government in that regard are continuing and I expect to be in a position to seek Government approval for the action plan in the near future.
