Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 59: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government further to Parliamentary Question No. 52 of 5 of February 2009 if, in his opinion, the purpose of the Residential Tenancies Act 2004, in terms of allowing disputes between such parties to be resolved cheaply and speedily, has been achieved; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10163/09]

Michael Finneran (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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The Residential Tenancies Act 2004 introduced a new regulatory framework governing private rented residential tenancies, providing, inter alia, for:

A measure of security for tenants of certain dwellings;

Amendment of landlord and tenant law in relation to basic rights and obligations of each of the parties;

The cheap and speedy resolution of disputes between such parties;

The establishment of the Private Residential Tenancies Board (PRTB) to discharge a range of functions related to these matters.

The PRTB was established as an independent statutory body in September 2004 and its principal functions are in the areas of:

The registration of private rental tenancies;

The resolution of disputes between tenants and landlords;

The provision of information, assistance and advice to the Minister on the private rental sector.

Since its establishment in September, 2004, a notable success has been the registration to date of over 310,000 tenancies, compared with less than 23,000 registered with local authorities in 2004. Almost 211,000 "current" tenancies are now registered with the Board. During 2007, the PRTB received almost 1,500 dispute applications for determination, and slightly in excess of that in 2008. These disputes are in areas such as deposit retention, illegal eviction, rent arrears, anti-social behaviour and various other breaches of landlord or tenant obligations.

Partly as a consequence of the Board's success in ensuring registration compliance, and the resulting large workloads arising, it is acknowledged that the processing times for dispute resolution are not yet optimal. This situation has arisen due to a combination of the major increase in demands in line with the expansion of the sector and the quasi-judicial process involved which can be time consuming, particularly in relation to issues such as court actions. It is, however, important to note that while the PRTB provides dispute resolution services, less than 1% of all registered tenancies seek to avail of the PRTB's dispute resolution mechanisms. This indicates that a healthy and stable landlord-tenant relationship prevails in the vast majority of tenancies. I am satisfied that the dispute resolution procedure offered by the PRTB is affordable, and much cheaper than the courts procedure that it has replaced, given that the application fee for the first stage of the dispute resolution process is €25 and the fee for the second or appeal stage is €40.

In response to the large and ongoing volume of work it had to deal with, the Board of the PRTB requested an additional 14 permanent staff to bring their permanent staffing complement from 26 to 40. This was approved by my Department in early 2008 and the additional personnel were recruited over the course of last Summer. This increased staffing level will help significantly with the administrative work related to the processing of dispute cases. On 16 December 2008, I launched the Board's new corporate plan which maps out how the PRTB intends to deal with new challenges during the 2009 to 2011 period. In this plan, the PRTB outlines specific targets and performance indicators in aspects of its work in the areas of Dispute Resolution, Tenancy Registration, Research and Information, Innovation and Customer Service, Leadership and Governance and Human Resources and Finance. No effort will be spared by the Board in vigorously delivering on this Corporate Plan.

Due to the nature and complexity of the Residential Tenancies Act, one element of the Board's remit under the Act is to assess the functioning of the PRTB and of the Act itself and to put forward suggestions for improvements to the original legislation. This has already resulted in a number of notable legislative changes to the Act being proposed to my Department by the Board. Some relevant amendments were introduced at Seanad Committee Stage of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill in 2008 and I hope to bring a number of other related amendments forward at Committee stage in this House.

In addition, I have requested my Department to undertake a review of the provisions of the Residential Tenancies Act 2004 under which the PRTB operates. The purpose of this review, which will get underway shortly, is to consider whether, in light of more than four years' operational experience, the PRTB's underpinning legislative framework can be improved to further support the effective regulation of a healthy and well-functioning private rental sector.