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

We must increase inspections. That is what the funding commitment between now and 2021 is about. We want to get to a point where a property is inspected once every four years approximately. When it comes to a housing assistance payment tenancy, we have a much narrower timeline than that. In that case, the property must have been inspected in the previous 12 months or is to be inspected in the following eight months. That is a good protection in the context of the money the State is providing. It is also important to recognise the great utility of a risk-based inspection programme. It allows us to identify properties which are prone to overcrowding because they have been used that way in the past, or to identify properties using social media and other channels. It means that when we go to inspect those properties, it actually helps people who are suffering in those situations. That is why when we look at the figures for compliance based on the inspections that have been taken according to this at-risk inspection model, we find a high rate of non-compliance.

I have raised the issue of social media and language students with officials. It will require having people with the right language skills in Portuguese and so on to read these advertisements and to help with inspections. On the Deputy's proposal to make it an offence for platforms to advertise or to place an obligation on them to regulate what is advertised, I would not see a problem if it is about professional property or letting platforms. It would be difficult to achieve that through normal social media channels like Twitter or Facebook, however. I am not against pursuing that course of action and I will look at it.

See this speech in context