Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Yes. To pick up on Deputy Barry's point and talk about a real case because sometimes talking about hypothetical cases makes it more difficult, there was an important decision by the Residential Tenancies Board in August, following on from the rent increases in Cúirt na Coiribe, in Galway. While ultimately the case was unsuccessful because the student was not taking up a new licence in that property, the determination is very clear in that that student property was subject to the jurisdiction of the Residential Tenancies Board and therefore was covered by the rent pressure zones measure. In my view it was very unfortunate that the student who took the case did not have standing. If somebody who was subject to the rent increase had taken the case, one assumes he or she would have been successful and the landlord would then have been forced to reduce the rent, which emphasises the value of the RTB having those additional investigation powers. For the purposes of clarity, will the witnesses confirm to the committee if my interpretation of that case is correct, namely, that somebody who was on a student licence took a case to the RTB and that one of the important findings was that that licence was a tenancy and therefore, in that instance, is covered by the RTB if the person taking the case is subject to the rent increase?