Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
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Question 35: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the planned reforms in the Residential Tenancies Bill; and if a provision for a deposit retention scheme is being considered. [22175/12]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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The Residential Tenancies Act 2004 regulates the tenant-landlord relationship in the private rented residential sector. My Department conducted a review of the Act in 2009 with a specific emphasis on whether the Act best supports the PRTB's key functions and on whether legislative amendments would support either the achievement of additional operational efficiencies by the PRTB in the delivery of those functions or the broader good working of the private rented sector. The drafting of the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Bill was approved by Government in July 2011 and the Bill is currently in preparation by the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel in collaboration with my Department.

Among the main issues that will be addressed by the amending legislation are –

· a statutory objective of 6 months to be set for the issuing of determination orders arising out of dispute resolution applications;

· the Board of the PRTB to be reduced from 15 to 12 members;

· measures to address non-payment of rent by tenants during a dispute process, in particular to introduce scope for the legal termination of such a tenancy;

· the separation of the governance and quasi-judicial functions of the Board;

· the inclusion within the remit of the Residential Tenancies Act of segments of the voluntary and co-operative housing sector that most closely parallel its current remit.

The Programme for Government 2011 also commits to the introduction of a deposit protection scheme and it is important that action in this regard is taken in the context of a strong evidence base. I have therefore asked the PRTB to commission cost benefit analysis-based research on such a scheme and to report back to me with recommendations. I understand that the PRTB has recently awarded the tender for this research and I expect that the Board will revert to me with detailed research and recommendations in the autumn.