Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 2 December 2014
507. Deputy Lucinda Creighton asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government in view of the change in Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2008 relating to bed-sits, the number of residents who are living in bed-sits who do not conform with the new regulations; his plans to address this while ensuring that the homelessness crisis is not further exacerbated; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45958/14]
View answerRegulations 6, 7 and 8 of the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2008 came into effect for all residential rented accommodation on 1 February 2013. The purpose of Regulation 6 is to ensure that each rental property has exclusive access to its own sanitary facilities and that those facilities are contained within the dwelling unit. Regulation 7 relates to effective heating which can be independently managed by the tenant, while Regulation 8 provides for sole access to adequate facilities for the hygienic storage, preparation and cooking of food. The 2008 Regulations came into effect generally on 1 February 2009 but allowed a four year phasing-in period to facilitate any improvement works that needed to be carried out in respect of Regulations 6, 7 and 8. All landlords have a legal obligation to ensure that their properties comply with the regulations and responsibility for their enforcement rests with the local authorities, funded from part of the proceeds of tenancy registration fees collected by the Private Residential Tenancies Board (PRTB). Since 2005, over 149,000 inspections have been carried out by local authorities on properties in the sector.
Census 2011 indicated that there were approximately 4,500 bed-sits across the country – the majority of which are found in Dublin – accounting for 1% of households in the private rented sector. A recent report from Dublin City Council found that the majority of dwellings selected for inspection (which were pre-1963 multi-unit buildings and more likely to be in this category of accommodation) were non-compliant with the regulations on initial inspection.
These inspections were part of an intensified inspection programme funded by my Department that commenced in 2012 and is due to run until March 2015 . It specifically targeted concentrations of rented properties which were deemed to be at risk of non-compliance with the legislation. Up to October 2014 , 66% of the non-compliant properties had been brought into compliance. Enforcement action continues against the remainder, including legal action in certain cases.
On 20 May 2014, the Implementation Plan on the State's Response to Homelessness was published in which the Government's approach to delivery on its objective of ending involuntary long-term homelessness by the end of 2016 was outlined. A copy of this plan is available on my Department's website at,
http://www.environ.ie/en/DevelopmentHousing/Housing/SpecialNeeds/HomelessPeople/.
The plan sets out a range of measures to secure a ring-fenced supply of accommodation to house homeless households within the next three years and mobilise the necessary supports.
Finally, Budget 2015 made provision for the Home Renovation Incentive (HRI) scheme to be extended to include landlords who are subject to income tax. It will apply to repairs, renovations or improvements to rental properties carried out on or after 15 October 2014.
