Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 12 June 2013
15. Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if his attention has been drawn to the conditions being experienced by many low paid or unemployed private rental tenants especially in Dublin's inner city as highlighted by reports from the RIAI and Dublin City Council; and his plans to improve conditions and enforce the law on unscrupulous slumlords. [27060/13]
Amharc ar fhreagraMinimum standards in rented accommodation have been raised significantly in recent years under the Action Programme on Standards which was introduced on foot of a commitment in the Towards 2016 social partnership agreement. All landlords now have a legal obligation to ensure that their rented properties comply with minimum standards for rental accommodation prescribed in the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2008 and 2009.
Responsibility for the enforcement of these regulations rests with the relevant local authority supported by a dedicated stream of funding provided from part of the proceeds of tenancy registration fees collected by the Private Residential Tenancies Board (PRTB). In general, local authorities have significantly expanded their inspection activity with the number of inspections increasing by almost 300% – from 6,815 to 19,616 - in the period 2005 to 2012.
On 1 February 2013, Articles 6, 7 and 8 of the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2008 (as amended) came into effect which means that all rental accommodation must now have its own separate sanitary facilities with updated heating, cooking, food storage and laundry facilities. In 2010, my Department made available to the local authorities additional funding of €2.4m to carry out once-off strategically planned programmes of inspection with a particular focus on accommodation at greatest risk of being sub-standard.
Dublin City Council received €1.1million in additional funding under this Intensified Inspection Programme which involved a commitment to carry out in excess of 8,500 inspections over a three year period. This funding was awarded on the basis of an application submitted to the Department and an additional confirmation that the housing authority had a detailed inspection plan in place to complete the inspections under the project within the stated timeframe. The Council commenced this programme in February 2012 and the programme will continue until March 2015 in addition to their general inspection programme.
Details of the inspections of private rented accommodation carried out, the dwellings inspected which did not meet the statutory standards and prosecutions initiated up to 2011 on a county/city basis are included in my Department’s Annual Housing Statistics Bulletins, copies of which are available in the Oireachtas Library and on my Department’s website at www.environ.ie. The penalty for non-compliance with the Regulations is a fine not exceeding €5,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or both, and the fine for each day of a continuing offence is €400.
