Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 12 March 2015
262. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government his plans to provide additional funding to Dublin City Council for the continuation of the intensive inspection programme of pre-1963 rental properties in view of the significant success of the programme to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10910/15]
View answerMinimum standards for rental accommodation are prescribed in the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2008, made under section 18 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1992. These Regulations were updated by the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2009. All landlords have a legal obligation to ensure that their rented properties comply with these regulations. Responsibility for enforcing the regulations rests with the relevant local authority, supported by a dedicated stream of funding allocated by my Department. This funding is provided from 20% of Private Residential Tenancies Board (PRTB) tenancy registration fee income.
My Department has allocated almost €29m to housing authorities since 2005 for the purpose of carrying out their functions under the Housing Acts in relation to rented accommodation. Additional funding was provided in 2010 for once-off strategically-planned programmes of inspection known as “Intensified Inspection Projects”. Funding for Intensified Inspection Projects was awarded where housing authorities agreed to undertake additional, targeted inspection activity, over and above what they would conduct as part of their usual inspection programme.
A total of 20 applications were received and Dublin City Council was awarded €1,099,135 for their Intensified Inspection Programme which involved a commitment to carry out in excess of 8,500 inspections over a three year period. 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. This programme of inspections has been extremely successful. According to the most recent data available, 70% of the non-compliant properties have already been brought into compliance. Enforcement action continues on the remainder, including legal action in certain cases. Dublin City Council commenced its intensified inspection programme in February 2012 and it is due to run until end March 2015.
The allocation of funding for Private Rented Inspections is reviewed annually and the allocation for 2015 will be approved shortly. In 2014, €2.5 million was allocated to local authorities to carry out their functions under the Housing Acts in relation to private rented accommodation and arrangements are being made for the payment of this funding in the coming months. The payments are based on actual inspection performance reported for the 12 months up to 31 December 2014. Funding in the amount of €300,000 was also allocated in 2014 to defray the cost of legal enforcement incurred by local authorities.
My Department is currently collating 2014 inspection data and will publish those online in due course. Data for previous years are available at http://www.environ.ie/en/Publications/StatisticsandRegularPublications/HousingStatistics.
