Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Senator for raising this item and for the opportunity to outline the progress that has been made in recent years in tackling the issue of substandard accommodation in the rental sector. New regulations were signed at the end of last year updating the minimum standards for rented housing. These regulations are part of a package of measures delivering on a commitment in the partnership agreement Towards 2016 to update and effectively enforce the minimum standards in the regulations for rented housing.

The new regulations, which came into effect generally in February this year, are being implemented by all local authorities and prescribe higher, updated standards in a range of areas, including sanitary services, heating, food preparation, ventilation and lighting. Further measures to deal with the outward appearance and structural condition of rental dwellings will come into force following the enactment of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008, which will also introduce a comprehensive new sanctions regime that will allow local authorities to deal more effectively with landlords who do not comply with the regulations.

The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government is mindful that the key to the success of these regulations is their effective enforcement. All landlords have a legal obligation to ensure their rented dwellings comply with the regulations, and responsibility for enforcement rests with the relevant local authority, supported by a dedicated stream of funding allocated by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. This funding increased significantly between 2005 and 2008, from €1.5 million to €4 million. The Minister will be in a position to maintain funding for this purpose in 2009 at the 2008 level of €4 million, bringing the total funding allocated since 2004 to €15 million.

In line with this increased funding, local authorities have significantly expanded their inspection activities in recent years. Indeed, the number of inspections carried out more than doubled in the two-year period from 2005 to 2007, to just over 14,000 inspections. Full details of the inspections carried out on a county and city basis, up to and including 2007, are published in the Department's annual housing statistics bulletins. Work is under way on finalising the data for 2008, which will be published before the end of the summer. However, preliminary figures indicate a further year-on-year increase in the number of inspections carried out of approximately 23%, with over 17,200 inspections carried out last year.

Information is not available to the Department on the amount of revenue raised by fines. However, a report by the Centre for Housing Research in November 2007 points out that landlords' responsiveness to notices of non-compliance issued by local authorities has ensured the need to prosecute is relatively low and that the low volume of cases taken each year suggests most examples of non-compliance are on a relatively minor scale. As such, the Minister does not regard the revenue raised by fines as indicative of the success of the enforcement activity of local authorities in any given year.

The number of inspections carried out is the real barometer of enforcement activity and, as I outlined, this is an area that has seen a very dramatic improvement in recent years. The further significant increase in activity in 2008 reflects the positive impact of the overall action programme on standards. The Minister is confident that the increased number of inspections, coupled with the new standards regulations introduced earlier this year and the measures included in the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008, provide a firm foundation for the continued development of the private rented sector as an attractive, sustainable and well regulated housing option into the future.