Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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In these sessions, we often focus on perceived problems or challenges. It is much better to have a Residential Tenancies Board than to not have one. It is important that people hear that. In many other jurisdictions, there is still only one recourse for dispute resolution, that is, the courts, which are expensive and time-consuming. While we often focus on delays, some of the data the board has given us on the processing of disputes is very positive. I would welcome another round of both tenant and landlord sentiment surveys. They are really useful and provide some of the best data we get. I appreciate that these take time and resources. If the board is considering doing that, it would be good to invite our committee to say if there are things we believe it would be useful to know so that these questions could be thrown in. We still do not have an accurate picture of the flow of landlords and rental tenancies through the system. We know the number of registrations, both new and annual, and the number of notices of termination issued. However, we do not understand the net change, how many are coming in and how many are leaving. If we could get a handle on that, it would give us some really important information for framing policy. This may be a question for Mr. Gallwey or Ms Loughlin. From the data they have in front of them, do they have any observations on where the rental sector is? My own sense of the sector is that it is still contracting, although not at as sharp a rate as some people previously thought, and that the total number is lower than it was a number of years ago. Do the witnesses have observations or thoughts on where the sector is and what is the net flow between new landlords coming in and sitting landlords going out?