Mr. Niall Byrne:

The register is very much a point in time. In the past, the RTB worked on that basis of what the number was each year. That time series goes way back beyond where we are today. Now the RTB register gets huge attention and is used for a multitude of purposes. I always feel we must be careful about using something that was designed for one purpose to inform a multitude of complex policy areas, which is what the State is faced with now.

What we are trying to do at this stage is to look at the register in a much more developed way and recognise that if this register is to be capable of doing what is now expected of it, the RTB needs to manage and maintain it in a very different kind of way. It predates my time with the board, but to be fair, there was investment in new technology to manage and maintain the register. That programme of work was completed in 2021 and came into effect in 2022. We did have issues with it but, as I said earlier, we have overcome those issues. Now we are a position, as my colleague said, stand over the data. We stand over the 246,000 number, not withstanding what our colleagues from CSO are saying. If it turns out the number is not correct, we are the first people who want to know why and we are the first people who need to act on it and we will. However, our system now is much more capable of assisting us in fulfilling the responsibilities that Deputy Higgins mentioned earlier, of informing people such as everyone here and the broader policy arena as well as the general public about what the RTB can say about the private rental sector in particular where much of the concern is.

In our annual report for 2022, we have called this out explicitly. It is in the information that went to the committee on page 26. Our data improves year on year, which is consequent on the introduction of annual registration. That was a major change and is only in since April last year. That gives us a basis on which we can work to generate much deeper and more accurate insights and to develop a profile of the register, including such issues as those that have been mentioned: the numbers and types of landlords; the dwellings and the tenancies; the movements in registered tenancies - we all want to know what is going on, which is the dynamic nature that we all want to understand; and data on the landlords leaving and entering the sector because now every landlord is identified to a very rigorous identity process so we can identify the individual landlords and then, over time, track their comings and goings and the changing of properties. This takes a bit of time. There is no point in my saying we will have all of that next year but by this time next year we will be much more aware. Then, into 2025, we think we will need two cycles of registration and we will be able to visualise and present the dynamic nature of the activity in the sector.

That is not just the register; that is just a snapshot. It is very once-off by nature whereas there is a dynamism to this, as Dr. Byrne has said.