Almost half of all flats, apartments and houses where tenants are in receipt of rent supplement fail to meet legal minimum standards for adequate heating, lighting or ventilation, new research commissioned by the Government indicates.
The report, prepared by the State-funded Centre for Housing Research, shows that sub-standard housing is much more common among rent-supplement properties compared to the rest of the private rented market.
Rent supplement is paid to people on low incomes who cannot afford the full cost of rented accommodation. Landlords who rent property to such tenants receive about €400 million a year from the State.
The study, seen by The Irish Times and due to be published later today, includes a review of local authority inspection reports for 800 properties in eight local authority areas last year.
This found exceptionally high rates of non-compliance with legal minimum standards in areas such as Dublin City Council (78 per cent) and Louth County Council (56 per cent). The average failure rate for the eight local authorities was 49 per cent.
However, the report notes that majority of landlords "appeared" to make changes following the inspections and the properties were eventually accepted by local authorities.
The loose requirements of legal standards introduced 13 years ago have been widely criticised. For example, the 1993 standards do not stipulate that a piped supply of hot water should be available for the full day. On heating, they allow for the sole source of heat to include open fireplaces or portable gas heaters.
The report notes that rent-supplement tenants, who represent the lower end of the market, are less likely to push for higher standards and that much of this accommodation was less likely to improve due to the high level of short-term lets.
Minister of State for Housing Batt O'Keeffe, who is due to launch the report today, said the major expansion in the private rented sector in recent years had contributed to a general improvement in the quality and choice of accommodation available.
He said the 1993 standards were being updated, while more money was being directed towards improving the policing of private rented standards.
The proceeds from tenancy registration fees - €3 million this year - were being linked to local authority performance in enforcement of private rented standards.
"This is a substantial investment in the development of the private rented sector," Mr O'Keeffe said.
The study also notes that failure rates were even higher when properties were measured against new standards used under the rental accommodation scheme, a new system aimed at replacing the rent supplement.
Some 96 per cent of properties in Dublin failed to meet these standards, while the failure rate of properties in all eight local authority areas was 55 per cent.
The report also found that the amount of rent supplement paid by the State was not sufficient to meet the rental costs for single people in particular.
The study notes: "It appear the relevant rent limit is simply too low to meet the cost of providing one-bed apartments in any of the HSE regions. In other words, the rent-supplement payment available is less than the applicable average rent, implying that at least some of the recipients of this payment will encounter difficulty in sourcing adequate accommodation."
