Mr. Niall Byrne:

I am familiar with some of the circumstances around a particular residents group in Cork, which I believe the Deputy referred to in his question.

That group wrote to me on 12 February this year on concerns about possibly unregistered tenancies in its locality. We take this and all such information seriously when it comes into the RTB. We are the regulator so are responsible for ensuring that everything that should be registered is registered. If we have reason to believe there are unregistered tenancies, we act on that.

We follow up on all the information. We do not require members of the public to make formal complaints to us. They can if they wish and there are provisions in the law to allow that, but we can also proactively undertake investigations where we believe there is non-compliance. We are committed to doing that and have followed up on every case referred to us in relation to properties in the vicinity of UCC. We know the position in relation to each of those properties where potentially unregistered tenancies may be happening and are following up on them all. I can give the Deputy that assurance.