Ms Louise Loughlin:

Yes. The Deputy asked for the total number of notices of termination received by the RTB in the first quarter of this year. It was 4,810 and for the previous quarter, the fourth quarter of 2023, it was 4,005. The role of the RTB in a notice of termination, NOT, is to receive it. As Mr. Keegan and Ms Crimin alluded to, we have done quite a bit of work on analysing those. However, with the way the legislation is framed, it is not for the RTB to determine the validity of an NOT or otherwise. That is a matter for the RTB exercising its quasi-judicial function of the adjudicator.

However, we have also stood up an early intervention service in our disputes resolution service. That was part of our commitments under the Government's Housing for All programme. We ran a small pilot last year and we are rolling it out. We stood it up in March this year. It involves small numbers at the moment, but we will be growing them as we go.

One of the issues we are looking at is where applicants, largely tenants in this situation, lodge a dispute application with the RTB regarding a notice of termination. Our staff are contacting the parties directly and helping them identify whether the notice of termination is valid and to consider what their options might be. I do not have the figures with me but we can send them on to the committee. The numbers are too small at the moment to really give a high-level view as to how successful it is but we believe it will develop into something, a different way of doing business, so to speak. The RTB has a function under the Act to help people resolve their disputes at the earliest possible stage and on that basis, we are able to say what a notice of termination should contain and to help people to understand that. It gives people the option to access expert advice from us.