Victor Boyhan (Independent)
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I welcome the Minister of State. I have not had an opportunity to congratulate him on his appointment. He has been in the House but our paths have not crossed. We worked very well and collaboratively on housing previously, especially concerning the Planning and Development Act 2024, as it is now. The Minister of State has vast experience in and knowledge of local government, particularly regarding housing. He is clearly suited to the post and I wish him every success.

I raise the issue of the need for the Minister for housing to commit to a review of the residential tenancies legislation to regulate the landlord functions of local authority-owned dwellings and to formalise this aspect. I was prompted to do this because a great announcement was made by the Minister of State's Department to clap itself on the back, and rightly so, for the level of inspections of the private sector. It is right that there should be inspections of the private sector. However, no one is talking about who is inspecting council properties. I do not know if the Minister of State saw a report from Samantha Libreri on RTÉ featuring a property in Coolock in north county Dublin with a rodent infestation and electrical sockets hanging off the walls. The tenant was live on the news as well talking about her experience of trying to get support. The report is in the news on the RTÉ Player and can be seen anytime.

I am calling for the mandatory inspection and certification of all properties. We have this approach for the private sector but not for the public sector. Some of the largest landlords in this country are our 31 local authorities, which have thousands of houses. Their tenants should have exactly the same rights and be afforded the same rights and opportunities in terms of redress. We also need certification. Of course, the embarrassment is that many of these properties would not pass certification. Many of the local authority properties we expect people to live in have tenants who in most cases have very limited means and cannot afford repairs themselves. I do not want to use a generalisation, but they are not getting the support of their landlord, which in this case is one of the 31 local authorities.

The figures published by the Minister of State's Department show that more than half of all private rental properties inspected last year did not initially meet the legally enforced standards. No mention was made of the local authorities and the standards in that regard. Let us put figures on this. The necessary standards were not met by 37,800 properties. That was out of a total of 62,085 properties inspected. Under the 2019 housing regulations, all private rental properties on the market must meet strict criteria in terms of heat, ventilation, natural light, fire safety, and health and safety. The Minister of State knows the score. Again, there is no mention of the local authorities. Council tenants have no right to an independent inspection of their homes. They simply do not have that right. They must go back to their local authority, which in this case is also their landlord. I think this is wrong. Council tenants should have access to independent adjudication in respect of complaints procedures. The only right they have now is to go to the Ombudsman. If they have a load of dosh, they can hand it to a load of lawyers and go through the courts, but I do not think that is right, appropriate or fair. It should not happen.

I have raised the issue of the Housing Commission report published in May 2024. It is a disgrace that we have not discussed it in the House. There has not been enough discussion of the report and many of its recommendations. For some reason, the Government does not wish to take on board many of those recommendations. It has taken on board some, but not many others. I reckon we should look at the report again if there is an opportunity in the future.

I am calling for tenants in local authorities to have full and equal access to these the Residential Tenancies Board. The current situation is simply unacceptable. I will leave it there, other than to say that we should give all tenants the same rights. Let us not distinguish between the rights of public and private tenants. All tenants should have the same rights.

John Cummins (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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I thank Senator Boyhan for submitting his Commencement matter. It gives me an opportunity to address an important matter in the House. The Residential Tenancies Acts 2004 to 2024 regulate tenancies in the residential rental sector covering private renters, cost renters and social renters with approved housing bodies and also regulate tenancies and licences in student-specific accommodation. The Residential Tenancies Acts set out the rights and obligations of landlords and tenants. The Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, was established as an independent statutory body under the Acts to regulate the rental housing sector by maintaining a national register of tenancies, resolving disputes between tenants and landlords, acting to ensure compliance with rental law and providing information to public, tenants and landlords to ensure that tenancies run smoothly and are providing reliable data and insights to inform policy, which the Senator and I would have reviewed as members of the relevant joint Oireachtas committee in the previous term.

The Residential Tenancies Act applies to every dwelling that is the subject of a tenancy, subject to a limited number of exemptions. As the Senator rightly pointed out, the Act does not apply to dwellings let by local authorities to social tenants. The Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Act 2015 brought tenancies relating to approved housing bodies under the remit of the RTB. The Housing Acts 1966 to 2024 govern local authority social housing tenancies. These Acts provide a range of extensive protections for tenants, including security of tenure, management of antisocial behaviour and a differential rents system. Furthermore, local authority tenants can avail of the customer complaints procedure in place in all local authorities regarding any issues they may have in dealing with their local authority in the context of their housing situation. Following the making and processing of any such complaint, if a local authority tenant still considers that they have been adversely affected by a local authority's action or lack of action which they consider unfair or unreasonable, they may make a complaint to the Ombudsman. The Ombudsman can examine complaints about how local authorities carry out their every day executive and administrative activities. These include complaints, delays or failures to take action on housing issues.

The Housing Commission has recommended the regulation of landlord functions relating to local authority-owned dwellings and the formalising of local authority-tenant relationships. Obviously, the Department of housing is reviewing and assessing the report of the Housing Commission, which, as the Senator pointed out, was published in May of last year. Given the breadth of housing policy areas covered in the report, the quantum of recommendations and actions involved and the complex interlinkages between them, this is a significant body of work. It looks at prioritisation, cost implications, sequencing, timing and the practicalities of implementation. Within this context, the recommendation relating to the relationship between local authority tenants and the RTB and any potential changes to that relationship are being considered.

Victor Boyhan (Independent)
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The kernel of this matter is simple: all tenants in this country, regardless of whether they are renting in the private or public sector, should be treated the same. I am making that case. As the Minister of State rightly indicated and as I already told him, the report of the Housing Commission contains strong recommendations to the effect that the residential tenancy legislation should be extended to cover local authority tenants and their relationships. That is a reasonable and fair request. I do not think you can tolerate or allow two arrangements of protections for tenants to run in tandem. All tenants are tenants. We want to encourage tenants to be good tenants. We also want landlords to be compliant with the law. I do not think it is tenable to suggest that the Minister for housing is currently satisfied. It is me who is not satisfied. I tabled this matter because I spoke to hundreds of councillors, including many in the Minister's party, who say they are constantly being asked to lobby in respect basic needs and health and safety issues around tenancies in local authority social housing, a matter that comes under the Department's remit.

What is my ask? I will close on this. I ask the Minister of State to go back to the officials in the Department to see if we can consider extending the legislation to include social tenants and give them the same rights as private tenants.

John Cummins (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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I again thank Senator Boyhan for raising this matter. I take the points he has made on board. Obviously, the Housing Commission made recommendations in this space. These are being considered by the Department. There are obvious issues with sequencing, cost implications and so on involved. As a result, the Senator will appreciate that there is a significant body of work to be done.There is no point introducing something if it cannot be implemented. The last thing we want to see is a system being implemented that is not resourced adequately. The Senator would rightly be back in this Chamber complaining that the people he is advocating for are not able to access the protections he is speaking to.

In the interim, the Housing Acts 1996 to 2024 provide protections. I encourage local authority tenants who have issues to raise them through the complaints procedure and the Ombudsman but I assure the Senator recommendations from the commission are being kept under consideration by the Department.