With respect to the group to come, I expect it would like some time to address the committee and we do not want to rush it. I thank the Irish Property Owners Association for attending. I agree with the concluding remarks made by Mr. Faughnan, namely, that the private property sector plays a crucial role in the provision of housing, especially in the absence of the roll-out of social housing provision by the Government. The private rented sector has filled the void that has developed.
I note that Mr. Faughnan also indicated that the private sector has been left to the market and that the interference with rent allowance is disturbing those market forces. One cannot have it both ways and say that rent allowance was a contributory factor to the rate at which rents were set in the past. Now that the Minister is capping rent allowance and is ring-fencing it within the sector, the association appears to be objecting to that even though it had no objection to the payment of rent allowance in the past.
Mr. Faughnan referred to difficulties with the Private Residential Tenancies Board, PRTB. There are two ways of looking at the PRTB. There are the systems in which the PRTB operates and the delays in those systems, and there is the concept of the legislation and the structures of the PRTB. I do not think Mr. Faughnan is suggesting that we should repeal the Residential Tenancies Act 2004 and that the PRTB should be abolished. I share his view on the operation of the PRTB and how it deals with disputes and the registration process. Is Mr. Faughnan suggesting that the PRTB should be abolished?
I would like to hear more about the 75% of the board that is involved in disputes. That was the result of a High Court case. The IPOA has representation on the PRTB. How effective is its role in that regard? Is the delay in the registration of tenancies due to registrations not being completed fully by the IPOA so that critical information such as PPS numbers and other details are not included in the registrations forms? That would create a delay, as it would with social welfare or any other applications that require a PPS number. Are members of the IPOA not submitting the required information on their forms? I am interested to hear the views of IPOA members on adjustments to rent supplement. Rents are dropping substantially in the private sector and the amount of money paid in rent allowance should reflect that.
I have spoken previously with Mr. Faughnan about the fact that €50 of the fee charged to landlords for the registration process goes to local authorities to carry out inspections. It is in the interests of the IPOA that inspections are carried out because in order for the product it is providing to have value, it must be put on the market at a minimum standard. I assume that the better the standard of product, the better the value for money in the open market.
What is the Irish Property Owners Association's view on how inspections are being carried out by local authorities given that the association's members are paying for those inspections? Is there a certain bias where local authorities are inspecting new premises instead of premises which are eight or ten years old or older where more difficulties would be identified?
From the inspection figures from across the country, I am sure the association's representatives will be aware that some local authorities have appalling inspection levels. When the County and City Managers Association came before the committee last week, I made the same the point, that some local authorities have inspection rates of less than 2% or no inspections, and even when breaches are identified there are no follow-up inspections or prosecutions in some local authority areas. I would be interested to know the IPOA's views on the inspection regime as it currently operates.
Since concerns were expressed at the time of enactment of the Residential Tenancies Act 2004 that this might have a negative impact on the private rental sector, the sector has grown significantly. There were 160,000 registrations in 2004 and I understand the current figure is approximately a quarter of a million. If we go by registration, the sector has grown significantly. There might have been a certain percentage who were not compliant over the years, but surely not 100,000 over the past four years. It shows that 80,000 or 90,000 new properties have come into the area over the past four to five years.
I was interested to hear what Ms McCormick had to say about anti-social behaviour and I would be interested to hear her suggestions on this. The IPOA is well aware that I contacted the Minister of State, Deputy Finneran, about a review of the Residential Tenancies Acts and the PRTB being carried out. That review is under way and the closing submissions are due on 16 August. Rather than merely coming in and stating that there are problems with the PRTB, what specific changes to the operation of the PRTB and the Residential Tenancies Acts, which is also under review, would the IPOA suggest?
The other issue I note from the IPOA website is that of licensee arrangements. This is not for tenants because, according to the legislation, licensees are not tenants. I note the IPOA advertises, promotes or informs the public on its website of licensee arrangements. A footnote to these promotions states that this is outside the scope of the Residential Tenancies Act 2004. Somebody might interpret from this footnote that this is a rogue's charter. Would the IPOA like to see licensee arrangements brought within the scope of the Residential Tenancies Acts as part of the review? How does it see the licensee arrangement being tidied up? I note that several cases that have been adjudicated upon — I share the IPOA's concerns about the delay on adjudications — have been found not to have license arrangements at all but tenancies which should be registered with the PRTB.
I share the concerns of the IPOA regarding the delays faced with the PRTB. However, given that the vast number of these delays are a result of deposit disputes and that the vast majority of these disputes have been adjudicated upon in favour of the tenant, what is the IPOA's view on the creation of a national rent deposit scheme whereby the deposits, which are the tenants' not the landlords' money, would be held in a national trust account where a mechanism for a more speedy resolution of deposit disputes could be dealt with? In such a scheme, there would be a structure where the landlord would be given his or her money in a short period. Ultimately, it would speed up much of the work of the PRTB. It is the significant factor in the backlog and if that arena of dispute was removed and dealt with differently, there would be a better service for members of the Irish Property Owners Association in terms of registration. I am referring to red card disputes involving anti-social behaviour, the damaging of property or people over-staying their lease periods.