Ms Rosalind Carroll:

Obviously, we do not have the details of every case, which is why it is case specific. Even from my knowledge of student accommodation, in many cases students are given a property and have exclusive use of it. We would welcome some cases coming before us and at least we could make a determination on that. At the moment we are in a vacuum. The last time I checked - I am open to correction - we did not have cases before us on it. We could not comment specifically on an individual case if we did. I think that deals with Deputy Ó Broin's questions.

On deposit protection and the idea of mydeposits and other UK-based models being used, within the current legislative framework we could not use those because it has to be the RTB that does that. Therefore there is not a basis for providing that flexibility within the current legislation. In addition we have no ability to have treasury management within the current legislation. That means that all the money that comes in has to sit in a bank account and only be used for that purpose. It cannot be used to help fund the scheme. That is why I say there are small things that could be done to help use it. That could even be used for the benefit of housing in a broader sense, for example, managed by the Housing Finance Agency and so on. We could do certain things to improve the legislation.

Deputy Ó Broin and others asked when we could implement this. There is no way we could implement the sanctions before the first quarter. That is to ensure we have the right framework around it and also have the right resourcing and trained staff who are skilled in what they are doing. It is important for both tenants and landlords, and we want to ensure it is done correctly. I do not think it could be done before quarter 1. That does not mean the legislation could not proceed to be passed. I need certainty in what I will be providing. Until legislation is in place, it is very difficult for me to know what will be in the final legislation. In the interim we are doing things such as commissioning the workforce plan on the basis that hopefully the legislation will be there. We are not doing nothing in between. We will continue to work on these things until they come.