Dr. Aideen Hayden:

I am going to work backwards with Senator Boyhan's comments. I completely agree with his comments on social housing. There is a major issue there in terms of the funding of the maintenance of social housing. We are well aware that an awful lot of what happens in social housing is reactive maintenance. In most local authorities there has not been a stock condition survey since the early 2000s, so we have a major issue with the quality of social housing. A lot of people do not seem to realise that the standards for rented housing also apply to social housing and there is an issue there that must be addressed.

On inspections, it is our experience that a lot of local authorities do reactive inspections. In other words, they inspect HAP properties, for example, or they inspect where there are complaints, rather than having a proactive inspection programme. In terms of resources, I completely agree, the inspection system has to be properly resourced. We have to also accept that there are some local authorities that will not have the resources, in particular smaller local authorities. The shared services model needs to be investigated. We see, for example, the shared services model operating very well in relation to HAP with Limerick city and county councils. There is room to look at that model to a greater extent.

I thank Senator Boyhan for his support for the NCT system. In terms of the partnership model, in our opinion the NCT system works complementarily with the current inspection system, which places the onus on the local authority to prove a landlord does not meet the standards and it is a multi-stage process in many instances. The advantage of a certification system is that one has to have it from the very beginning before one is entitled to rent property. There is really no difference between it and a partnership process but what we propose would make it easier rather than more difficult for local authorities to fulfil their function.

Going back to the issue of properties not meeting standards on a consistent basis, I do not wish to be negative towards some local authorities, but there is a very big difference between them. We are aware of some local authorities that do inspections in a brand new apartment block, carry out inspections on a selection of ten apartments and tick a box for 300 inspections. I compliment Mr. Smyth who is here with us today for the intensified inspection programme Dublin City Council carried out between the canals, which specifically targeted pre-1963 properties that were known to be in multiple occupancy and were far more likely not to meet minimum standards. It is very important that we do have an open and transparent system when it comes to inspections. One of the advantages of an NCT-self certification system is quite simply that when a landlord is registering a property with the RTB, as he or she is legally obliged to do, and he or she does not present a certificate of compliance when the property is registered, clearly, one has a breach. The bottom line is that one can focus on those landlords who are outside of the sector, because if they are outside of the sector in relation to compliance on one level, we know from experience they will be outside the sector in compliance with everything else, be it fire safety, tax or overcrowding. No matter what it is, non-compliance in one area generally signifies non-compliance in another.