John Cummins (Fine Gael)
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Yes. This is obviously a major focus here because, as Mr. Keegan said, these numbers are unacceptable. If we look at the most recent report, from 2022, 33% of the RTB's cases were as a result of rent arrears or overholding, 19% concerned validity of termination notices and 17% were for breach of landlord obligations. On the other side of all this are landlords and tenants, who, in many cases, are out of pocket in terms of money or out of a property in terms of a tenancy. The longer the timeframes that are in place, the more negative impact there is on landlords and tenants. I continuously push on these timelines because of the importance of getting them down to a reasonable period to allow us to make progress on these things.

The RTB knows that when it issues determination notices it will have to go to court in many cases to have them implemented. That process can take even more weeks and mean people are out of money in respect of a property. We are trying to make this sector an attractive to bring people into it as landlords or as tenants and these timelines have a major impact on whether landlords decide to stay in the market or sell properties and on whether tenants feel they are in secure or insecure tenancies.

That is the reason I am harping on. I will come back in the second round.