Ms Rosalind Carroll:

We have entered into a partnership with the Citizens Information. We are doing individual clinics throughout the country. It is not just Dublin-based. It means that we are engaged at the same time in training the Citizens Information staff on the intricacies of the legislation. That is a good partnership.

We also have a new communications and research unit, which we set up last year, in recognition of exactly what the Senator was talking about. It is a new area for us.

Tenants tend to be a different demographic and can be harder to reach. We are trying to recognise this and we have entered into social media. We have a Twitter account that we launched only in the past month. While one might smile at this, it is often the only way to make contact, particularly with younger people.

On a more positive note, in terms of engaging with landlords, we are introducing a voluntary landlord accreditation scheme next month. This is about trying to work with landlords as they come into the sector and familiarising them with the legislative framework from the beginning. It is about dispute prevention rather than just coming at it again with the stick. These are a couple of things we are doing.

The housing assistance payment, HAP, and the rental accommodation scheme, RAS, come specifically within our remit. Regardless of any relationship with a local authority, these are private tenancies. A tenant or landlord can come to us directly. We would not have a relationship with the local authority in that regard. It would be with either the tenant or the landlord.