Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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Question 212: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if funding will be made available to the Private Residential Tenancies Board in order that the backlog of disputes will be tackled; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23542/09]

Michael Finneran (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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The Private Residential Tenancies Board (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.

The Board receives funding from my Department by way of annual grant and it also retains a portion of the fees that it receives for the registration of tenancies under Part 7 of the Residential Tenancies Act 2004. Four sevenths (4/7) of these fees are retained by the PRTB to assist in funding its operations and three sevenths (3/7) are allocated to local authorities to support the discharge by authorities of their functions in relation to the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2008, the Housing (Rent Book) Regulations 1993 and 2004 and other provisions of the Housing Acts related to private rented accommodation.

During 2007, the PRTB received almost 1,500 dispute applications for determination, and slightly in excess of that in 2008. 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 huge increase in demands in line with the expansion of the sector and the quasi-judicial process involved which can be time consuming, particularly when it comes 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.

In response to the large and ongoing volume of work involved, my Department approved a request from the Board of the PRTB for the recruitment of an additional 14 permanent staff in 2008, to bring the permanent staffing complement from 26 to 40. This has been of significant benefit to the Board in dealing with the administrative work associated with the processing of dispute cases.

In addition, the PRTB has taken a number of other initiatives to optimise its throughput of dispute cases, including the introduction of a system of paper based adjudications on a trial basis. Early indications are that these initiatives are helping to speed up the dispute resolution process. In the longer term, an automated document management system will also be introduced by the PRTB as part of their recently adopted ICT strategy, the roll-out of which has now commenced and which, I understand, the PRTB expect to have implemented by the end of 2010. This should also yield staffing and process efficiencies for the organisation in general and expedite the processing of dispute cases in particular.

I am satisfied that the Board has a clear strategic approach to reducing its disputes cases backlog and that sufficient resources are now in place to allow the PRTB to discharge its functions efficiently and effectively.