Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

Some 14,000 or 15,000 bed spaces are provided under the campus and off campus schemes, some of which are located in north Dublin. Until now, local authorities have been responsible for many issues such as standards, registration and so on. This legislation proposes to establish the new tenancies board, which will take over responsibility for registration from local authorities, although it will do so for everything. Nonetheless, there will be greater co-operation. Local authorities have had so many irons in the fire that perhaps they were not undertaking all their duties due to the need to prioritise their activities. However, under the new set up, the private residential tenancies board will work with the local authorities and will give them some of the registration money raised. It is hoped this will encourage local authorities to perform the service for which they are supposedly being paid.

While the onus will always be on the tenant who takes accommodation, the board will be in place to resolve disputes between landlords and tenants. If a tenant is not taking care of his or her accommodation or the landlord is not keeping it repaired and up to the standard at which it was let, people can take their dispute to the board. All of these provisions will mean that standards will improve. Tenants are responsible for being aware of what they are renting, although I accept that when supply was short, it was often a case of taking whatever was going and quickly. However, that situation has already changed.

We want to get away from the days of bad accommodation and the real enforcement officer is the availability of supply and choice, whether there is one enforcement officer or ten in each local authority area. The best people to enforce standards are those taking the accommodation. If such people say "no" and walk away, the landlord will get the message quickly if it happens often enough. We seek to provide more accommodation, more choice and we want prospective tenants to be a bit choosy at times; if the accommodation is not good value for money, they should walk away. Tenants have been doing so for the past two years as they have had a choice.