Ms Rebecca Keatinge:

There are mechanisms by which the landlords can pursue their arrears at an earlier stage.

We all know about the RTB dispute resolution process. It could serve its warnings and be in there pretty quick. Our understanding is that the RTB will prioritise the more straightforward cases. There is also an enforcement process and mechanism within the RTB where, in some instances, it will take that forward and seek an order from the court to enforce it. I hear what the Deputy is saying on the mark in respect of recovering it but landlords may reduce their potential losses by pursuing what is a remedy that is available to them at an earlier stage.

With respect to conditions, the Mercy Law Centre would have traditionally looked to some of those cases to provide advice. Given the scale of the homeless crisis, we are prioritising our cases so we devote a considerable time to the real acute need of people who cannot even access a bed for the night. That is where our resources go. There are certainly very legitimate legal issues for people who are in very substandard housing and whose health is being compromised by that but there is very little recourse in terms of legal advice. When we have people contacting our service it is very hard to know where we can direct them to get that support.

I shall comment briefly on costs as mentioned by the Deputy. There is the chilling effect of, potentially, getting a cost order against one. Even paying basic stamp duty costs is a barrier in itself. Many of the cases we are dealing with concern fair procedures and, therefore, are in the High Court so then one is into having €300 to get a case initiated and then the costs will grow. That is just simple stamp duty. Those costs are a challenge for us, as a law centre, to meet if we are bringing a lot of litigation and for an individual the costs would be substantial as well.

Deputy Connolly asked about appeals mechanisms. From our perspective on the housing side, if there were some consistency around how appeals were dealt with by the local authority that may be a mechanism to avoid, perhaps, going to the High Court in the first instance. That could happen if one knew that one had a meaningful, transparent and consistent procedure that one could engage with that may resolve things and not require one to take a leap. There could be an equivalent to the small claims court in the local authority housing sphere.