Dan Boyle (Cork South Central, Green Party)
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Question 176: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if he will address the continuing issue of poor sanitary standards in inner-city private rented accommodation by increasing resources currently available to local authorities which are not adequately fulfilling their responsibility. [28453/05]

Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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Responsibility for the enforcement of the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 1993 rests with the local authorities. Between 1996 and 2004 specific resources for such work were available to local authorities through registration fees payable by landlords to the local authority in whose functional area their rented dwellings are situated.

Since 1 September 2004, the regulations relating to registration with local authorities have been repealed and replaced with the requirement for authorities to register details of their tenancies with the Private Residential Tenancies Board. Arrangements are in place for the transfer of registration fee moneys from the board to the local authorities in recognition of their registration fee income foregone. The transfer will be based on each authority's performance in enforcing the standards and rent books regulations as evidenced by their statistical returns, as well as the level of registrations relating to their functional areas and the need to distribute income across the four-year tenancy cycle. Those new arrangements will mean that authorities continue to be specifically resourced for this function with a view to supporting greater enforcement activity of the standards regulations on their part.