Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)
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Question 482: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government his plans to alter the position whereby a landlord who enters into a licence agreement directly with a tenant is not required to register with the Private Residential Tenancies Board or to comply with the standards for rented accommodation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22256/11]

Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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The Residential Tenancies Act 2004 applies to every dwelling that is the subject of a tenancy, subject to a limited number of exceptions which are set out in section 3(2) of the Act. Where a dwelling is occupied by a person under an arrangement or agreement which is not a tenancy or under a tenancy to which the Act does not apply, the PRTB does not have any function in the registration of such agreements or arrangements.

The PRTB can adjudicate as to whether a rental agreement is a tenancy or a licence and has done so in the past. Where it finds that a tenancy is unregistered due to the landlord's claim of licence, the PRTB can serve a notice requiring registration and failure to comply is an offence. I am unchanged in my view that all tenancies that should be registered with the PRTB must so be and I am supportive of the PRTB's enforcement activity in this regard.

The Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations, 2008, made under section 18 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1992 sets out minimum standards for private rental accommodation. These regulations apply to all houses which are let, or available for letting, for rent or other valuable consideration solely as a dwelling with the exception of certain categories of accommodation set out under Article 4 of the Regulations. These categories include houses let to a person for the purpose of occupying the house for a holiday and houses let by the Health Service Executive or by an approved body, where sanitary, cooking or dining facilities are provided for communal use within the building which contains the house.