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

To be clear, any change in this area would not be made without the RTB first coming to me and the Houses to discuss it. It is not even on its horizon to charge for the service. I am looking ahead to a landscape on which there will more larger landlords and when there may be a case to advise a group of tenants involved in a dispute with a large landlord to go through the RTB mediation service. In that situation the RTB might want - I am speculating - to impose a fee on the landlord, not on the tenants, because of the amount of time it might take to resolve the issue or because of the services rendered. It might be of the view that the landlord - we are moving towards having more institutional landlords, although they now account for a small percentage - would easily be able to carry the costs.Now that we are moving to more institutional landlords, who account for a small percentage of all landlords, they feel that the landlord would easily be able to carry costs that they might have had to have borne if they were in a legal situation, which they are not. It is about thinking ahead to the far future. I think it is prudent in light of the changes we are making at the moment for the RTB. That is why it is in the legislation. There is nothing on the horizon that involves charging for mediation. No such proposal would come forward without me coming to the House to debate it. I would respond to the point made by Senator Ruane by reminding her that we have a free mediation service to make sure tenants who are in difficult circumstances as they try to find resolutions do not face an additional financial burden. That is not going to change.