Ms Rosalind Carroll:

In those cases, we will look for the landlord and we have powers to search for landlords and have been successful in some cases. Obviously, landlords may be in financial difficulties themselves and be unable to pay over the money but because the receiver has never received that money, he or she has no accountability for it. I do not believe we would be able to overcome that even within a legal framework of legislation, but that is a matter for the Attorney General as opposed to us. That is just our interpretation of the issue.

A question was asked about the definition of family member. We agree that the definition of family member could be tightened up within the Act. Nephews and nieces are included at the moment. We could certainly look at that. A question was asked about whether people were truly selling their properties. In many cases people are selling their properties but since the introduction of rent pressure zones, we have seen more cases where people have not gone through with the sale. That is related to the figures about which I spoke, where 48% were found to be valid while 52% were found to be invalid. In those cases, tenants have a right to come forward to us. There is penalisation within the Act and tenants can apply to us for damages. That is not necessarily going to get them back their homes, which is really at the heart of what we are talking about here. We are working with the Department and the Minister's officials to see whether there is more we can do around this issue in terms of potential sanctions.

In respect of the rent transparency piece and the public register, again, we are very supportive of that. Hopefully, the Attorney General will give it the go ahead. We would certainly hope to facilitate that and the annual registration which, again, we brought through to the committee, gives the data and allows us to publish it.

A question was asked about registration of landlords and how we see that in terms of enforcement. Last year, and the previous year, we sent out approximately 15,000 letters to landlords where we thought there might have been some level of non-compliance. In general, once that letter goes out, we get compliance straightaway. At the moment, we are quite limited as an organisation. All of our data sharing is with State bodies so that means it is more to do with people in receipt of rent supplement, HAP or RAS. Visibility in terms of the private market outside of that is very difficult. We do not have investigative powers. One of the things the new Bill will give us is investigative powers, which means our ability as an organisation to actually pursue non-compliance will be greatly enhanced. That is one of the measures that will help.