Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I accept the Deputy's bona fides absolutely on this and when it comes to us all wanting to work together to ensure we get better standards for tenants. What we saw in the RTÉ exposé were human rights abuses perpetrated in our country against people who were not able to defend themselves. One of the things we have looked at with the Residential Tenancies Board is to see how we can make it a strong and independent regulator whereby the onus is no longer on tenants to have to report these crimes. That is priority legislation in this session, as the Deputy will have seen. We are going to progress it with two Bills. When we refer to a two-year change management plan it is not that we are waiting until two years have passed for everything to be done. We are actually doing it over the course of two years based on the priorities as we see them.

I am glad to hear that the properties the Deputy listed for the local authority were inspected and I take his point on the current regulations and legislation not being tough enough. Things have changed since 1966, of course. That is why we are looking to strengthen provisions on overcrowding, both in terms of its legal definition but also in terms of the enforcement actions and sanctions applicable in such circumstances. We have to enure the legislation is strong enough to constitute a proper deterrent to criminals using their properties in this way. Currently, it is not. That is why it is our priority. It is also a priority to get annual registrations of tenancies to get that certification process in at the same time.

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