Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I have some brief supplementary questions. This is very interesting. There has been a handful of cases. It is difficult to pin down the figure exactly but it is on the low side. There is a range of scenarios to which this could apply. It could be an accidental landlord or any one of a number of scenarios. One scenario would be a big student accommodation provider, perhaps a big international finance company, coming here, opening a block of 300, 400 or 500 places and saying it is being offered on a licence and not a tenancy basis. Would the witnesses be aware whether any of that handful of cases apply to such a student accommodation provider?

In addition, if someone knowingly provides student accommodation on a licence basis whereas the real content of it is more appropriate to a tenancy, what is the nature of that offence? Is it a civil or a criminal offence?