The Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Mr Brennan, is considering diverting millions of euro spent on rent supplements into buying houses as part of a more long-term solution to accommodation shortages.
About €372 million will be spent this year on providing State-funded rent supplements for welfare recipients in private rented accommodation.
Mr Brennan said that while the rent supplement was an adequate short-term response, buying or building houses would be a more cost-effective and long-term solution. "We have to examine the need behind the payment of the money to see if we can solve the problem in respect of which we are making payments," he said.
"If you are paying €350 million a year in rent, you could feasibly raise a mortgage worth between €6 billion and €7 billion. That's enough to build around 40,000 houses. The rent supplement is not one which in years to come a society like ours should rely on. We should have houses for people who need them and not consign them to rental accommodation indefinitely into the future."
Meanwhile, the level of Government funding for social and affordable housing was criticised by the Labour Party yesterday.
Some €6 billion is to be allocated for subsidised and social housing over the next five years, it was announced this week.
However, Labour's environ-ment spokesman, Mr Eamon Gilmore, said this fell short of NESC recommendations which had said €1.4 billion a year was needed up to 2012 to meet targets.
