DUBLIN City Council is owed nearly €20m in unpaid rents from around 2,000 of its 27,000 tenants.

The figure makes up a considerable portion of money owed to the local authority which nevertheless operates an unofficial policy of not evicting people so long as they pay even €1 a month.

The total figure of €19.7m is more or less the same as six months ago, reflecting the council's inability or unwillingness to pursue those who fail to pay their bills.

Cllr Mannix Flynn said of the level of debt: "It seems that Dublin City Council and their officials were very complacent in relation to the collection of rents.

"If that is the way it was in the last number of years during the boomtime, we can only expect catastrophe in the downturn."

Cllr Killian Forde, chairman of the finance committee, said that the level of debt was reflective of the economy as a whole.

"The fact that they have gone up so much is a reflection of the amount of people who are becoming unemployed; it's our policy to work with people and make sure they can afford to pay," he said.

Flynn said there were also serious questions to be asked surrounding the use of an "ad hoc" credit system used by the council.

There is currently around €2.3m in a credit account of money belonging to tenants for rent. Flynn said he represented a pensioner whose money was deducted from her account by the council without her knowledge. "The council is trying to make out that it is running a credit scheme but there is no such thing as a credit scheme," he said, explaining that there was no structure in place and that many people were not aware of how much of their money was in the account.

"I have concerns over the method they are using whereby they have €2.3m of people's money and they are assuming the onus is on the people to go in and take it.

"I believe that people are not aware that the council is deducting these types of sums. I worked for one woman who never gave them permission to take this money and had trouble getting it back."

However, defending the system, a spokeswoman said that it is operated under the Differential Rent Scheme and that some people choose to have their accounts in credit.

Denying that this could be operated without the knowledge of a tenant she said: "All changes to tenants' rents are notified to them."