Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank my colleague, Deputy Ó Broin, for bringing forward the motion. I am delighted the Government is not opposing it. It is very important that the Dáil is taking note of the disgraceful behaviour of some landlords. The lack of resources provided to local authorities is resulting in a lack of inspections and, as a consequence, the total disregard of standards in the private sector. However, taking note is not enough and real action needs to be taken by the Government to address the problem.

We are calling for an NCT-type system for private rented housing to further strengthen compliance with legal standards, as suggested by Threshold. Almost every citizen in the State must spend some of his or her life in rented property, therefore making sure these properties are safe and properly regulated is of the utmost importance. Like everybody else, I was shocked but not surprised by the conditions in which renters were living, as shown on RTÉ. The level of greed and disregard for people's lives is absolutely disgusting and shames us all.

The housing crisis is being exploited by unscrupulous landlords because tenants are forced to accept substandard accommodation as there is simply no alternative. Yet again, it is the investigations unit of RTÉ which investigates and exposes wrongdoing this country, this time in the private rented sector. This is not the first time the team has done so. Other high-profile investigations include highlighting the case of Grace and exposing conditions in the Áras Attracta nursing home, as well as the mismanagement of charitable moneys. I do not want to take away from the great work of the investigations unit, and I hope it keeps it up, but why has it been left to a broadcasting organisation to reveal such wrongdoing in our country? What would happen if it did not investigate this particular issue? How long would we have to wait to address it? Only a terrible tragedy in one of the properties highlighted would have brought this issue to light.

In 2016, only 4% of private rented properties were inspected by local authorities. Of the paltry number examined in Limerick city, every single one failed. That is a failure rate of 100% for a very low rate of inspections, and I do not believe the figure would be much higher if there was a greater number of inspections. Regulatory regimes are practically non-existent in many sectors of our society, and this needs to change. We need a proactive system of regulation for private rented accommodation. That is why we are calling for an NCT-type system which will provide tenants with assurance that their accommodation meets the required standards and prevent abuses like cramming more than 60 people into one property from happening again.

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