Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

It is clear audit opinion, but I do draw attention to the recognition of deferred pension funding assets by the board and the disclosure that a significant number of tenancies registered in 2013 related to the clearance of a significant backlog of applications for registration received in the period October 2010 to November 2012. What happened was that incomplete data was given in relation to certain tenancies submitted for registration or, in other cases, an incorrect fee was paid, or perhaps, if it was submitted late, there was liability for a late payment penalty, which might not have been included. A backlog built up, therefore, while they were trying to figure out how they would treat these. Strictly, in law, they should all have been returned to the landlords in question, but the PRTB took a pragmatic decision in 2013 that it should draw a line under it and recognise that there was fee income that could have been collected had the items been returned to landlords and had the landlords returned the correct amount. The cost of this was estimated at €1.3 million. However, the backlog of applications were registered and they stand as tenancies registered and subject to the oversight of the tenancies board.