John Cummins (Fine Gael)
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It did surface. In regard to the periodic inspection of private rental tenancies, some local authorities have been more effective at that than others. Mr. Keegan can perhaps comment in his previous capacity in relation to that also. While local authorities have been proactive I have actually encountered two instances which are particularly problematic. I can see how they occurred. The local authority clearly used the dataset from the RTB to identify the private rental tenancy but in the intervening period since it accessed the dataset to inspect the property, it had subsequently been sold. In one particular case there was the death of the former tenant, who had purchased the property. It caused great distress. An inspection was sent out from the agent on behalf of the local authority looking to inspect the property at the address of the deceased, who was the former tenant but subsequent purchaser of the property. I see how it happened. How can we overcome that? Is there a live database that local authorities can access or is it based on the previous two quarters or something to that effect? If it is based on former data, such incidents could happen.