Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I assure the Minister that this is an issue on which we all want to work on a cross-party basis. In the debate we had last year, there was very strong agreement across the Chamber on the actions required. While I understand fully the provisions of the 1966 Act, we are being told by city and county managers that they are simply not strong enough. I sent the Minister and the chief executive of Dublin City Council an email in December 2017 listing properties being advertised but which were clearly not of an acceptable standard. I received a reply earlier this year from Dublin City Council to say it had inspected all of those properties and while the authority believed there were not acceptable, they were not in breach of the 1966 Act's provisions on overcrowding notwithstanding the presence of multiple bunk beds in kitchen facilities or other rooms. I urge the Minister to bring forward an amendment to the overcrowding provisions in the Act as soon as possible. If he does so, he will have our support to put it through the House.

I turn to local authority inspections. There are some local authorities which currently inspect at a 20% plus rate. I accept and welcome the fact that the Minister is seeking to increase that rate across all local authorities, but 2021 is too far out, in particular for those areas where there is a heavier concentration of substandard properties. I ask the Minister to consider bringing forward that increase so that we move towards the 25% inspection rate at an earlier date than 2021.

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