Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is welcome. Based on statistics from the Central Statistics Office, CSO, in 2016, some 143,178 people were renting in Ireland. There will most likely be an increase in this number after the current census figures come out some time next year. The number of people renting is rising, with more apartment complex developments and build-to-rent schemes. These people, however, need to be protected during any disputes that may arise. Landlords also need support if they have any difficulties with tenants.

The Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, was established through the Residential Tenancies Act 2004 to act as a service to mediate and provide dispute resolution between landlords and tenants. If someone is living beside a rented property and has an issue, the RTB can also assist him or her through mediation and appeals. The role of the RTB is to be an independent body, providing both support and knowledge for tenants and landlords and ensuring both parties know their rights and responsibilities. Unfortunately, the RTB has been poorly promoted with many tenants and landlords not being aware of the board or its function. Moreover, many landlords and tenants are contacting their local county councils regarding disputes. County councillors are not trained in mediation and can unfortunately only do so much to help with issues raised by those renting or letting.

The RTB has also experienced a shortfall in resources in recent years, with many cases taking a significant amount of time to be solved. I can personally attest to such a case. We had an issue when someone moved into a rental property beside my house and we were asked to go that route with the RTB. To be honest, I would not go that route again. I had to go the legal route because it was the only way to solve the issue we had, which ended up in court. Renters and landlords need to be made aware of the board, particularly those not from Ireland who may not know who they can contact if they are experiencing an issue. The RTB needs more power and adequate resources to deal with any disputes that may come before it. The number of people renting is increasing dramatically every year and both landlords and tenants need to be aware of the role of the RTB in the rental sector.

Along with my colleague, Councillor Deirdre Forde from Cork, I am working on drafting a Bill that will provide an adequate mediation service for homeowners experiencing neighbourhood nuisance. This Bill will require that the Legal Aid Board provide mediation services to resolve neighbours’ disputes as many people are unable to afford the high costs of the court system if they have to go down that route. Mediation is extremely important as both parties can co-operate and avoid unnecessary conflict or even court proceedings. However, there still need to be more resources allocated to the RTB. Many people do not want to use the RTB, including me in my case were it to happen again in the future, due to the backlog of disputes which is leading to more court cases and creating another backlog in the legal system. We have established a board to prevent disputes going to court but we need to allocate more resources to it and ensure it has adequate power to deal with those disputes.