I thank the committee for the opportunity to address it. I will describe my professional background for the information of the committee. I qualified as a solicitor in 1994 and I have practised in Limerick since then. I am originally from County Kerry. Since 1994, in addition to my practice, I have also acted as a lecturer in law in the areas of the built environment, estate agency and auctioneering. I have lectured on property valuation and quantity surveying courses in Limerick Institute of Technology and I also lectured with the Institute of Professional Auctioneers and Valuers up to 2005. I have acted as an assistant internal examiner with the Law Society. I have acted as adjudicator with the Private Residential Tenancies Board for a period from 2007 to 2010 and I am currently a member of the Valuation Tribunal.
I am honoured to have been nominated as chairperson designate of the Property Services Appeals Board. This is a new entity so I am describing how it will work in the future rather than any current work. The Act establishing the Property Services Regulatory Authority was enacted last December. This Act also provides for the establishment of the Property Services Appeals Board which is a body independent of the Property Regulatory Authority. Its purpose is to hear and determine appeals against certain decisions of the Property Services Regulatory Authority. The committee will note I refer to certain decisions; not every decision of the Property Services Regulatory Authority may be appealed to our agency and there are reasons why this is so.
I have set out in my presentation to the committee the decisions of the authority which may be appealed to the Property Services Appeals Board. This list is not exhaustive because in the future it may be decided on foot of court proceedings that certain other decisions may be appealed to it. The list currently includes, a refusal to issue a licence on grounds other than factual grounds; a decision not to have complaint investigated on grounds that it is not made in good faith, is frivolous or vexatious or could be resolved by informal means; a decision to impose a minor sanction on a licensee; a decision to dismiss a complaint following investigation by an inspector; a refusal to make a grant out of the property services compensation fund or a decision in relation to the amount of any such grant.
The Property Services Regulatory Authority will make its decisions on matters and it has its own disciplinary board which is separate from the appeals board and any person who is dissatisfied with a decision in those categories may within a period of 30 days appeal to the Property Services Appeals Board.
Once a case is heard the appeals board may either confirm the decision of the authority, send the case back to the authority with recommendations for review, with or without direction for reconsideration, or it may substitute its determination of the decision and substitute an alternative penalty. Anyone dissatisfied with the outcome of an appeal decision from the Property Services Appeals Board may appeal to the High Court on a point of law. This is a further redress.
This body is a completely new entity and we do not know what will be the level of appeals which will be presented. This will become known when licences are issued and the regulatory authority decides to grant or refuse licences. We do not know yet what will be the number of cases. We may need to have meetings once a month or three times a year but this depends on the number of cases. I have met the departmental officials and the team who will be dealing with these matters. They are experienced staff and are very enthusiastic about the provisions of the Act.
I will be happy to return to the committee when the agency has been dealing with cases. At the moment this is all the information I can give the committee.
