Ahern 'was given one day's notice of rent cut plan'

The Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Ms Coughlan, presented her plan to severely cut rent allowance to the Minister of State for Housing, Mr Noel Ahern, as a "fait accompli" the day before she publicly announced it, a spokesman for the Department of the Environment has said.

The cut to rent supplement, announced in November, came into force yesterday.

Ms Coughlan had two meetings and other contacts with the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, in the five months before introducing the cut. She had, however, no personal contact with officials in the Department of the Environment, which she says, should now provide housing for those who had been eligible for rent allowance.

Asked if the Department of the Environment was consulted about the cut, a Department spokesman said: "Well, yes and no. There would have been some discussions between officials in general about that issue, but the first time Minister Coughlan herself spoke to anyone in this Department about her plan was the day before the Estimates [November 12th, 2003] when she talked to Minister Ahern.

"It was presented to us as a fait accompli. By then it was already decided."

Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act indicate Ms Coughlan met Mr McCreevy on a number of occasions and that her officials were in contact with officials of his Department on a regular basis from June to November last year.

However, a spokesman for Ms Coughlan claimed last night there were also "numerous high level meetings between officials at the Department of the Environment and officials at the Department of Social and Family Affairs since the summer".

From yesterday any new applicant for rent supplement must be renting for six months. The spouse of anyone in a full-time job will not be eligible. Exceptions will be made for the homeless, the elderly and the disabled.Some 50,000 households are already on housing waiting lists.

In November, Department of Social and Family Affairs officials calculated that 4,000 people who had been eligible for rent supplement will be affected by the cut, giving savings "in the region of €10.5 million over a full year".