A call has been made for the Government to delay rent supplement changes announced this week, until local authorities are given sufficient resources to meet housing demand.
Labour leader Mr Pat Rabbitte, expressing concern about the scheme, also asked for an undertaking that nobody would have their rent supplement terminated after 18 months "unless the local authority is able to provide them with a suitable offer in regard to housing".
But the Minister of State for ´the Environment, Mr Noel Ahern, insisted that "there is nothing whatsoever to worry about". Mr Ahern, who has responsibility for housing, said that under the scheme people "may well be accommodated in the same accommodation" but there would be a range of options for them.
The scheme, announced jointly by the Departments of the Environment and of Social and Family Affairs, would allow rent supplement to be paid for 18 months, after which local authorities would be responsible for providing people with long-term housing.
He said one of the "significant benefits of the new arrangements is that tenants who have their accommodation needs met by the local authority will be able to retain their accommodation, if they progress into employment."
He said the Government hoped to "get better value for the totality of spending as between the local authority provision and the rent supplement scheme", and he rejected suggestions that the scheme would lead to extra demand for public housing.
Mr Rabbitte said the tightening of eligibility for the rent supplement was one of the most severe of the Government's "savage 16 social welfare cuts" last November. With the new scheme it appeared that "eligibility would be withdrawn after 18 months" and the local authority response would be accommodation-based and would involve no payment of rent supplement to tenants.
He said the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Ms Coughlan, was "attempting to present the €332 million (spent on rent supplement) as being wasted on private landlords. The fact is that this money will still go to private landlords, except it will be channelled directly from the local authority". He doubted that there had been consultation with the local authorities.
Mr Ahern said: "People with a long-term housing need require a long-term housing solution, not a weekly social welfare payment in lieu of housing". The new arrangements "will involve local authorities progressively assuming responsibility, over a time-frame of three years, for accommodating rent supplement recipients". Asked by Mr Rabbitte if the €332 million spent on rent supplement would be transferred to local authorities, he said that some of it would be, as needed.
"This funding is in addition to funding already being provided under the local authority housing programmes." The new initiative "will in no way reduce the level of funding being provided to the social housing capital programme or towards the rent supplement scheme," said Mr Ahern.
