Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

-----to be on the other end of the process. I will be specific because when members do not keep to the issues it is difficult to get answers to questions.

Ms Walsh has a wide employment history, from repossessions to child protection. She was quite successful in 2004 in the area of environmental health with the pizza restaurant case. It is not always easy to win such cases. She has wide experience in that area and I can understand where her expertise comes in regarding dispute resolution, on which she concentrated a good deal in her contribution, but as the Chairman outlined at the outset, with the changes in Irish society, we are looking at the cost of rental accommodation in the Dublin region doubling over a short period. Thirty-seven percent of accommodation in Galway is rental accommodation, and therefore this will be a strategic role for the next decade.

What is Ms Walsh's experience on other boards? I do not see that anywhere in the curriculum vitae. She mentioned in the documentation the importance of her role as chair, but what experience has she had on boards? Has she had experience of chairing other boards either in the private or the public sector?

Ms Walsh's experience is mainly within the courts. What attracted her to apply for the position in the Private Residential Tenancies Board?

It is very specific and I do not see anything in her curriculum vitae that would attract Ms Walsh to the position. I wonder, therefore, what encouraged her to apply. She touched on questions of policy. Policy and strategic thinking are a more important role of the board than dispute resolution. The deposit retention scheme which represents just under 50% of the board's work was touched on very briefly. I am different from Deputy Cowen in that it is tenants who come to me rather than landlords. In the last 15 years one landlord has approached me, while the rest have been tenants. Even where a tenant wins a case, he or she does not seem to get his or her €700 back. Some would say that is an impact on the individual tenant, but the State, in many cases, has provided the deposit. If one looks at the accounts, there is no record of a deposit having been returned in recent years to the Department of Social Protection. Obviously, quite a number of landlords are holding on to deposits.