Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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Question 7: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if, in regard to the Private Residential Tenancies Board, responsibility for operational matters has been devolved to the Minister of State at his Department; if responsibility for appointments to the board under section 153 of the Residential Tenancies Act 2004 has been devolved to the Minister of State; if responsibility for appointments to the Dispute Resolution Committee under section 159 of the Residential Tenancies Act 2004 has been devolved to the Minister of State; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3897/09]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)
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Question 58: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the names and the period of appointment of people whose appointment he has approved to be members of the Dispute Resolution Committee of the Private Residential Tenancies Board who are not members of the board of the PRTB; the fees he has consented should be paid to members of the DRC; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3910/09]

Michael Finneran (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 7 and 58 together.

Under the Environment, Heritage and Local Government (Delegation of Ministerial Functions) (No.2) Order 2008, the powers delegated to me in my capacity as a Minister of State include the powers conferred on the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government by the Residential Tenancies Act 2004, other than sections 153, 154, 155 and 180 of that Act. The specific sections referred to relate to appointments to the Private Residential Tenancies Board, PRTB, the appointment of a chairperson of the board and issues relating to the board's annual report and accounts; accordingly these matters remain the responsibility of the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. While the other powers contained in the Residential Tenancies Act 2004 are delegated to me, it should be noted that under the delegation of functions legislation, every delegated power and duty continues to be vested in the Minister concurrently with the Ministers of State and may be exercised and performed by either.

On foot of concerns regarding the procedural and technical correctness of a number of appointments to the Dispute Resolution Committee, DRC, brought to my Department's attention by the board in December 2008, the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Act 2009 was introduced to regularise the appointments in question. Those concerns related to a number of appointments to the DRC that had not complied with the requirement under section 159(3) of the original Act that a member of the board must have at least three years remaining in their board term of office to be appointed to the Dispute Resolution Committee. In introducing the regularising legislation, it was decided, for the avoidance of doubt, also to regularise DRC appointments from the perspective of the requirement to consult with the Minister, as documentary evidence was not available to show that those consultation requirements had been complied with.

I am circulating in the Official Report a table setting out the names and periods of appointment of the 15 non-board members currently appointed to the Dispute Resolution Committee. The fees payable to members of the DRC were sanctioned by the Department of Finance in November 2005 and have subsequently been increased in line with general round pay increases. The current fee for members of a tenancy tribunal drawn from the Dispute Resolution Committee is €387 per day. The fee for the chairperson of such tribunals is €603 per day.

Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)
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I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Finneran, for his response. I wish to recap on the position we were at a week ago when the legislation was introduced into the House on an emergency basis. Twelve illegal appointments have been made to the PRTB to date. While I understand the Minister, Deputy Gormley, is not involved in the operational day-to-day running of the board, ultimately, the buck stops with him regarding these illegal appointments because he signed off on them. When we debated this issue on 9 October 2008, I asked the Minister five times how it came to his attention that two illegal appointments had been made but he failed to reply on each occasion. I also suggested that he should carry out an audit of other appointments to the PRTB, which he also failed to do. How did the issue of the ten illegal appointments come to the Minister of State's attention? I have a fair idea how it happened but I would like him to put on record how that came about.

Daily fees are €600 and €387. What is the current caseload? Has anybody in the Department read the Act? Both myself and my personal assistant have read it back to front and the illegal appointments did not result from a misinterpretation of the legislation. The Act is explicit on this matter, the illegal appointment of two councillors and the synchronisation of appointments to the DRC and the PRTB.

Michael Finneran (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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The matter was brought to the Department's attention in December 2008.

Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)
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By whom?

Michael Finneran (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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By the PRTB. It was brought to my attention on 22 December 2008.

Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)
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Was this discovered in-house by the board or was it brought to its attention by an external source?

Michael Finneran (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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It was brought to the Department's attention and then it was brought to my attention on 22 December 2008. I acted with haste and I dealt with the matter on the first sitting day of the new session in January and we regularised the position.

A full audit was carried out and it was established that there were no other illegal appointments. When the issue regarding the DRC appointments was brought to the Department's attention in December 2008, it requested the PRTB to urgently commission an external audit to check compliance with the provisions of the Residential Tenancies Act 2004 with regard to governance and legal structures, appointments of board and committee members and other relevant aspects relating to the governance provisions of the Act. The compliance audit was completed in January 2009 and it identified no similar issues requiring legislative correction.

Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Fine Gael)
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Were cases lodged with the courts before the emergency legislation was enacted?

Michael Finneran (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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I am not aware of any. No cases have been brought to my attention.

Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)
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The audit took place following the second and not the first error and I requested that the audit should be carried out after 7 October 2008. The difficulties referred to by the Minister of State arose on 10 December and the audit was carried out after that. Why were shadow spokespersons such as myself and Deputy Hogan kept in the blind about this?

The issue came to the attention of the Minister of State and the Department because somebody who was before a DRC pointed out it was operating illegally and it was not discovered by the PRTB. No audit was carried out. An individual who was before a committee noticed it was operating illegally and brought it to the Minister of State's attention. He should not state this was identified as a result of an audit. The audit to which he referred was carried out after the second mistake was discovered. I take on board there may not be difficulties following the audit but the mistake was not discovered by the audit.

Michael Finneran (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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I did not state the audit identified the problem. The audit identified there were no further problems.

Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)
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But the audit was only carried out following the second error.

Michael Finneran (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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The matter was brought to the Department's attention in mid-December and it was brought to my attention on 22 December. In the interim, the Department sought an audit, the results of which were made available in January, and there were no further problems.

Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)
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I do not blame the Minister of State because the issue of appointments lies with the Minister and the error and the failure to carry out an audit are firmly on his desk.

Michael Finneran (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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I acted as fast as possible when the matter came to my attention. I did not delay on it. I moved immediately but the Dáil was not in session when the matter was brought to my attention on 22 December 2008. The House had risen. I had the legislation available on the first sitting day of the new session and I ensured the audit was carried out in the meantime. I moved as fast as I could.