FG: People on rent allowance should ask landlord for reduction
Rent supplement was paid to more than 74,000 people last year — an increase of more than 15,000 on the previous year.
More than a third of those claiming it are from outside the State.
“People are getting the allocated allowance and obviously landlords are not going to offer the property any cheaper.
“So unless a tenant goes back asking for a reduction, it is not going to change.”
This has a knock-on effect on the whole rental market, and Ms Enright described it as an outdated system which needs immediate reform.
“The landlords are not doing anything dishonest, it’s just human nature.”
In the past 10 years there has been an increase of more than 30,000 people claiming the payment, with the cost to the exchequer more than trebling.
The projected estimate for the scheme for 2009 is €461 million.
The Laois/Offaly TD said she will be calling on the Minister for Social and Family Affairs Mary Hanafin to take action and review the scheme as there is the potential to save hundreds of millions of euros.
“We really need to examine the structure of the scheme and look at how the allowance is administered,” she said.
“Obviously we do not want anybody to be at risk of losing their homes, but there are so many empty houses there is room for bargaining,” she said.
Ms Enright maintains if something is not done, the amount will continue to increase massively in coming years as more and more people seek the allowance.
The system, she said, was flawed but it was not really anybody’s fault — it was just the way it had evolved.
Ms Enright said she intends to undertake a survey of rental prices around the country with a view to decreasing them.
* Irish: 45,659.
* British: 4,998.
* Not specified: 4,108.
* Polish: 3,805.
* Nigerian: 2,982.
* Romanian: 1,279.
* Lithuanian: 1,218.
* Latvian: 791.
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