‘€450 million a year rent support will not solve housing crisis’

Higher levels of rent support, which came into effect this month, were already being paid to more than 8,000 households, an Oireachtas committee has heard.

Helen Faughnan, the assistant secretary general of the Department of Social Protection, told members of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Social Protection the new allowances would increase by up to 30 per cent in Dublin and 20 per cent in Cork, Limerick and Galway.

But she said that prior to the increase, rent payments were frequently made for more than the maximum limits .

Housing crisis

Ms Faughnan said that while the State would spend almost €450 million on rent supports this year, this would not solve the housing crisis.

She said the programme for government had a number of measures to tackle housing and the long-term aim of the department was to return rent supplement “to its original purpose of being a short-term income support, mainly for people who are unemployed”.