COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF TALLAGHT AREA COMMITTEE (1)

Monday, October 18, 2010

QUESTION NO. 5

QUESTION: Councillor C. King

"To ask the Manager to report on the situation with RAS applications at present and can he confirm/deny that applications are not being processed and if so, why?"

REPLY:

When the Rental Accommodation Scheme commenced in South Dublin County Council in late 2005 qualified Rent Supplement Recipients were transferred to the Scheme on foot of referrals from the Community Welfare Officers and requests from eligible applicants directly to the RAS Unit.

Subsequently an Application Form was devised to ensure that complete information was available from the start of the process.  This worked well but in essence it was not a fair system.  Many RAS eligible applicants on the Housing Waiting List  were by passed for RAS accommodation by clients who were much lower on the list but had made a RAS specific application.

RAS accommodation is a form of social housing and  it is considered that the fairer, more transparent method is to transfer eligible RAS applicants to RAS accommodation in order of their place on the Housing Waiting List.The RAS Unit is moving towards this system of transfer.

Application Forms which have already been received are being processed, however new applications are being accepted only in particular circumstances e.g. where someone has received an offer of work and is reluctant to accept the offer because of the impact any increase in income might have on their Rent Supplement payment.