Across Dublin City Council letters are dropping for council tenants and HAP tenants telling them the people least able to afford to pay are going to see massive rent increases of 30% on average. Dublin city renters are getting organised. I saw there was a big meeting last night, a big meeting the week before and a big meeting the week before that. Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin is involved in organising those people. The same is happening in South Dublin County Council in advance of a planned rent rise. The question is whether this is part of national government policy and just the thin end of the wedge that is going to see council and HAP rents rise and rise.

I thank the Deputy for the question. Currently, local authorities charge rent under the Housing Act 1966 and this is known as the differential rents system. It is a critical piece of the State's welfare apparatus that subsidises housing costs and supports households who cannot meet their long-term accommodation needs from their own resources. The making or amending of such rent schemes is generally a matter for the executives of local authorities within the broad principles set out by my Department, including that rent levels should be based on income and reflect tenants’ ability to pay and also that they contain a hardship clause under which tenants can pay a reduced rent for a specified period and under certain circumstances. Local authorities should review their rent schemes regularly to ensure they are equitable and appropriate to the household means. The Government’s priority is to accelerate the delivery of social housing, with a significant funding package to support this ambition. It is therefore increasingly important that social housing supports are targeted appropriately and managed efficiently. Central to this is ensuring that the social housing rents charged remain appropriate to household means and that charging structures protect the most vulnerable households, including those with children. The current system of 32 individual rent schemes has its strengths. However, rents can vary widely and disparate approaches mean social tenants on similar incomes can pay significantly different rents for similar properties merely because of the local authority area they reside in. The new housing plan Delivering Homes, Building Communities commits to reviewing rents paid to local authorities and AHBs with a view to introducing a national framework that provides a consistent and equitable system of rents and protects vulnerable households.

Can the Minister of State tell me whether, in the national framework the Government is going to work towards, rents are going to come down for any council tenants or are they just going to rise? That is the simple question. The Delivering Homes, Building Communities document is extremely worrying because it suggests moving away from a differential rent-based system in which people's rent is based on their income and what they can afford to pay, which is an extremely fair system. Instead the document refers to the Housing Commission recommendation of "Merging social and cost rental housing over time to form a single affordable rental sector, based on the principle of cost recovery". In other words, it will no longer be based on the principle of how much people can afford to pay but how much it costs to build the homes. That would be an extremely retrograde, regressive step. It would be a move in exactly the wrong direction and would result in even bigger rent increases for those who can least afford to pay.

The Deputy asked whether it will result in increased or decreased rents. As I outlined in my initial response there are significant differences in rent schemes from local authority to local authority. Somebody with a given income in one council may be paying more than someone on a similar income in a different local authority area. There is a national framework contained in the housing plan. Options will come forward to the Minister in the second half of this year. Obviously we will look at what the best system and approach is at that point. It is true to say that in some local authority systems, it ranges between 10% and 20% of income and different approaches are taken to secondary earners. We set a broad framework. It is probably appropriate at this point that there be a more streamlined system where local authorities cannot have as broad a range as they have had heretofore.

I thank the Deputy. In the premise of his follow-up question, he is determining the outcome of this review. He is stating the outcome of it will be that we will go to the highest rent provided by a local-----

Will you promise me you will go lower?

I did not interrupt you, Deputy.

No, I am interrupting you though.

I did not-----

Deputy Murphy, you should not interrupt.

You tell me if you are going to go lower.

Deputy Murphy-----

I am just asking the question.

-----address your remarks through the Chair.

I would ask the Minister of State whether the Government is going to reduce them.

You are out of order. I ask the Minister of State to conclude his answer.

Deputy Murphy had an opportunity to make his comments. I am responding to him. He is determining the outcome of the review. I am saying that a review is under way and that proposals will be brought to the Minister in the second half of this year. There are varying discrepancies between some local authorities. I am not determining what the outcome will be. Some local authorities have a higher percentage and some have a lower one. I am not going to determine what the outcome of the review will be until it has been undertaken.