Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

Under the provisions of the Residential Tenancies Act 2004, landlords are legally obliged to register tenancies with the Private Residential Tenancies Board. It is a matter for the PRTB to ensure that landlords comply with the requirements of the Act. Neither my Department nor the Health Service Executive has a role in this matter and it would be an unnecessary duplication of functions for either body to take on a monitoring role regarding the registration of tenancies. The Department supports the requirement that tenancies facilitated by rent supplement should be registered with the PRTB and is working with the PRTB to achieve this. The Department provides the PRTB with rent supplement data for checking against its register of tenancies so that it can check compliance regarding tenancy registration and take follow-up action as required. That is already the law and those with responsibility for its implementation are already in place. We try to assist them in doing that. To have a double responsibility is simply a further duplication. The law is the law and people should adhere to it.

See this speech in context