Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I take the point that there are different levels of regulation, such as for governance, how AHBs keep their finances and accounts, and so on. Bluntly, my point is that it is more complicated than dealing with a council, from a tenant's point of view. Even though having recourse to the RTB is better than nothing, it is not the same as having recourse to a councillor, who can table a motion at an area committee to state an issue has been examined and it has been decided there is a problem, and that the problem will be addressed in a particular way. The RTB cannot do that. All it can do is comply with the law. Sometimes one will discover that the law does not reach such complexities. Similarly, whatever governance standards, rules or regulations may be set down might not meet those requirements, which is why we have democracy, because we constantly re-evaluate such matters and try to refine them.

We learn from people contacting us about problems that may not be covered by all the rules and bodies.