Mr. Niall Byrne:

I thank the Senator for the questions. She has made quite a number of points and we will attempt to deal with all of them. I ask her to please remind us if we overlook any part of her questions.

One thing which the Department, the Minister and the Government have committed to is to undertake a review of the private rental sector during the course of 2023. The Minister and the Taoiseach announced that earlier this month. The intention is to complete that review before budget 2023. We all look forward to that process and it would be an opportunity, one would hope, to surface many of the issues the Senator raises. There are quite wide-ranging policy issues, many of which are not directly relevant to the work and the responsibilities of the RTB, but they are of great public interest and importance. I understand where the Senator is coming from with the questions she is putting to us but they are for a much wider forum. The RTB would certainly hope that review would allow for all of those various aspects to be encompassed within the review, including the European comparative dimension referred to by the Senator. That is very important. We cannot really comment on that type of comparative analysis and it is not something we currently do. It is very interesting and potentially very informative. I know from informally reading various documents and reports from various jurisdictions, but it is not something on which the RTB can undertake to work directly at the moment.

My apologies, but perhaps my colleagues have taken a better note of the Senator's questions.