Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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Question 399: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government his views on the Private Residential Tenancies Board (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30759/12]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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The Residential Tenancies Act 2004 sets out the rights and obligations of landlords and tenants in the private rented residential sector. The Private Residential Tenancies Board (PRTB) was established under the Act to operate a national tenancy registration system and to resolve disputes between landlords and tenants 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 outcomes of the review were announced in April 2010 and the drafting of the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Bill 2011 was approved by Government in July 2011. The Bill is currently in preparation by the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel in collaboration with my Department with a view to early publication.

The Bill will, inter alia, extend the remit of the Act and of the Board to the voluntary and co-operative housing sector and will give legal effect to the administrative merger of the Rent Tribunal and the PRTB.

Private rented dwellings must, by law, be registered with the PRTB within one month after the commencement of the tenancy and the cost of registration is €90 for a single tenancy. Where the tenancy is registered more than one month after the commencement of the tenancy an additional late fee of €90 is payable. The same late fee is payable regardless how late the registration is received by the PRTB.