Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I might depart the Chair on a positive note. I thank the witnesses for their attendance today. Senator Cummins will take the Chair. I recognise improvement when I see it, compared with when the RTB first came before the committee. The improvement we see and hear about today is in that research and evidence gathering it has been doing. I look forward to that report from the CSO. I am glad to see a commitment on that being delivered. I hear the IT system has stabilised. I recognise that further improvements are needed there and the importance of those mediations and dispute timelines. I recognise fully that doing those as quickly as possible is best outcome for everybody. It is positive that those response times for emails and the phone lines are very good and really helpful for tenants. It is also good for landlords who need the services of the RTB to know there is a good turnaround.

I thank the RTB witnesses and staff as well, as they are instrumental in doing this. Notwithstanding what we said earlier about the majority of tenancies having a good experience, for me what remains the biggest challenge for renters is affordability of rents. That is one of the biggest challenges out there as well as the delivery of cost rental. The figure for cost rental was given earlier on and it was much lower than we would want to see. We hope to see many multiples of that over the next ten to 15 years.