Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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I am sorry for being late. I believe the Residential Tenancies Board's duties have been expanded recently to cover local authority tenancies and I have a question on that matter. This is not a criticism of anybody. Some tenants in local authority estates have been causing very significant anti-social problems. It may be drugs, alcohol abuse or dysfunctional people. They are intractable and have never been properly dealt with. I get very few complaints from people residing in private accommodation but I am getting some where local authorities own houses outside the local authority estate. How does the Residential Tenancies Board propose to tackle that problem? I believe the witness mentioned extra staff. Was that part of the board's ten extra people? How does the board see its role? It is critical to ensure that local authorities do their job. That is fair comment.