Ms Lucia Crimin:

If I understand the Deputy, and he should please correct me if I am wrong, when he speaks about enforcement, is he speaking about the enforcement of determination orders? As Mr. Byrne indicated, that is a completely separate process under the Act. I completely appreciate the perception from the public's viewpoint of why there may be differences. I can speak on the process adhered to by the RTB in respect of investigations carried out under Part 7A of the Act. Those investigations are carried out by authorised officers, who have very distinct powers provided to them under the Act.

Those powers are live and valid once an investigation has, in the first instance, been approved and then commenced. The first step of any investigation taken under Part 7 by an authorised officer is to establish the identity of the landlord because the second step of the investigation is to put that landlord formally on notice by way of a notice of investigation. That is explicitly provided for in the Act. The authorised officers go through quite a process to identify who the landlord is and his or her contact details. In some cases that is quite straightforward and in other cases the authorised officers have to use extensive powers to do that.

Without repeating what Mr. Byrne has already said, there are differences in the two processes provided for under the one Act.