The Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed (INOU) has said the proposed changes to the rent assistance scheme would fail to deliver on the needs of many people caught in the trap of high rents and low pay, writes Kevin Rafter, Political Reporter.
The changes to the scheme were included in a report published this week by an interdepartmental committee on the administration of rent and mortgage assistance.
The INOU general secretary, Mr Mike Allen, said the report "makes significant progress for elderly people in private rented accommodation but it specifically excludes the problems of the unemployed and the low paid".
The Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, is to establish a planning group to report within six months on a new rent assistance scheme.