asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he envisages his Department being involved in a subsidy for tenants as a result of the new rent legislation; if so, if he will indicate how this scheme is to be administered; and whether community welfare officers are to be involved.

Power is being sought in the Housing (Private Rented Dwellings) Bill, 1982, to enable me to make regulations, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, for the payment of allowances to tenants of rent controlled dwellings who would otherwise suffer hardship because of increases in their rents when rent control ends. It is intended that the allowance scheme will be administered from the headquarters of my Department and that community welfare officers will not be involved.

Will the Minister expand on "administered from the headquarters"?

I will when arrangements have been made. The legislation is still before the House. In the meantime we are in consultation with the Department of Finance on how the scheme will operate when the Bill becomes law.

Will these payments be available to appropriate tenants as a matter of right? Is the Minister saying that the entire scheme will be administered from Dublin and that there will be no local officers to whom tenants who may have recourse to this scheme could go other than to go to Dublin?

The scheme will be administered from the Department of Social Welfare and not through community welfare officers. The way in which the scheme will be operated has yet to be determined.

Will tenants be entitled to the allowance as a right?

Any tenant who has his or her rent determined will be entitled as a right.

Has any provision been made in the Department's Estimates to cover the amount payable to tenants and, if so, how much?

The Deputy is asking me a question about which I should have had notice. It was not made within my Department's Estimates but provision was made in relation to the Bill before the House by our predecessors for, I think, £6 million. Now we anticipate that it would cost more than this in practice. We will have to consider that as soon as the Bill is passed and we have more information on the numbers of people who will be involved.