Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

If the Deputy has any information or facts around landlords who are trying to circumvent regulations, he should bring it to the attention of the RTB. Since the RTB was empowered to initiate sanctions against landlords, it has processed information in relation to 704 tenancies and this has led to commencing investigations on nearly 200. That is what needs to happen. That is why we need to beef up the RTB as well, not just giving it the additional powers but the additional resources it needs to carry out its work and we are doing that.

The premise of the Deputy's argument that we have had a wave of evictions or homelessness since this legislative came in is just not true. Homeless numbers have continued to drop. I want to see them drop further but that is the fact of it. They are the facts and the numbers and behind all of those numbers are people. There will always be individual cases and that is why we need the RTB and orders to be tooled up to assist it. That is why I have MABS involved now at a very early stage in the legislation that this Government brought forward that the Deputy opposed in July.

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