The purpose of the rent supplement scheme is to provide short-term income 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 Government decided in 1997 to approve the redevelopment of Ballymun and a regeneration programme commenced in 1998. The provision of rent supplement in the Ballymun designated area was identified by housing authorities as a risk to the tenure diversity objective of the project which is to achieve a more balanced tenure mix by providing additional private market housing. In response to the concerns about achieving a tenure balance mix, section 25 of the Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2007 provided that a payment of rent supplement can be refused in respect of accommodation which is situated in an area notified to the Minister for Social Protection by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government as being an area of regeneration.
The Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government advised in 2008 that, on the advice of Dublin City Council, he had decided that the Ballymun area merited designation as an area of regeneration for the purposes of section 25 of the Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2007. Accordingly, with effect from 27 November 2008, rent supplement is not paid in respect of accommodation situated in the Ballymun regeneration area, as outlined by the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government. The measures provided for in section 25 are not a blanket refusal of rent supplement in areas of regeneration. Specific provision is made to ensure that people already residing in such areas and in receipt of rent supplement may continue to receive payment; and that people already residing in such areas in private rental accommodation and who may have recourse to rent supplement in the future would not have their entitlement restricted. It is not intended that the section 25 provisions will be open-ended and will be reviewed jointly by the Department and the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government when the Ballymun regeneration is completed in 2012 or earlier, if appropriate.