Ms Rosalind Carroll:

I might move back to the powers to investigate and how they would work. I mentioned the idea of smart regulation earlier because the organisation will grow but the question is by how much. We are making significant investment in IT this year within the RTB. Our IT infrastructure is an area for which we rightly have been criticised. That is being designed on the basis of data analytics and being able to use data in a much more effective way. We expect to be able to use our registration data in a much more effective way, that is, not just looking at the 20% but in terms of putting programmes in and using smart intelligence where the computer is telling one that one needs to look at a particular issue, for instance. At the same time we will be able to have some people who will be able to monitor advertisements on platforms etc. to see where rents may be advertised above the rate at which we think they should be, based on other data we have within the information held by us. We would be able to look at the exemptions data to specifically be able to have a quick look and to ask whether that sounds like it is in compliance with the legislation.

What we think is good about the sanctions model - and there is a lot of talk about criminality here - is that the sanctions model is a civil law-based approach. That is really beneficial to the RTB because our non-registration of tenancies has always been a criminal matter up to now. That means that if we go out to prosecute someone, we are not allowed to ask them anything that might incriminate them. Our powers to get information are greatly limited by it being a criminal process. There is somewhat of an irony there.

Within the sanctions regime there are two things that are really important. We have the power to ask people specifically to give us details of their bank statements and to bring them in and question them about things which we could not do in a criminal case. To revert to a lack of understanding, there are some landlords, a small minority, who are blatantly contravening the legislation. There is another group who are getting it half right but do not always do so. We can get to those people, they can admit their contravention and we can work with them on that basis. There is an element of proportionality that we can bring into this and we need to have that proportionality.

When one looks at who comprises our landlord sector, 86% own between one and two properties. I was asked a question at a different event yesterday about all of the institutional investment companies coming in and I went back to check the extent to which that stock type is growing. We believe that this stock type is still only making up less than 3% of the overall size of the sector. While it is growing, it is not significant in terms of the overall size of the sector. We have to remember that we are operating with amateur landlords and I would like to bring them with us. We want everyone to comply. That is a little information as to how I think we may work on the investigations side.

In terms of areas outside of the rent pressure zones, RPZs, there is an element with every regulation that is brought in to the effect that one unintended consequence of regulating a market is that people will chase the market. We have had this problem in areas like Limerick, initially, when it came in, because they were very near the national standard rent where we can point to the use of the information within this, where the local electoral areas, LEAs, are listed. We can go to people and show that they are not that near, if one looks at such and such or that this is where the trends are going. On a more local level we can help the committee do this if that is of any assistance.