Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the position regarding a noise pollution issue in respect of a person (details supplied) in Dublin 3. [16764/13]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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Currently, a person experiencing noise nuisance may under the Noise Regulations contact their local authority, which may initiate proceedings on grounds of noise nuisance under the Environmental Protection Agency Act 1992. This Act also provides for any person, or group of persons, to seek an order in the District Court to have noise giving reasonable cause for annoyance abated. The procedures involved have been simplified to allow action to be taken without legal representation. A public information leaflet, A Guide to the Noise Regulations, outlining the legal avenues available to persons experiencing noise nuisance, is available on my Department’s website www.environ.ie.

The position in regard to tenants is that landlords are responsible for enforcing the obligations that apply to their tenants under the Residential Tenancies Act 2004. In this regard, the Act prohibits anti-social behaviour in, or in the vicinity of a dwelling to which the Act applies and allows a landlord to terminate any tenancy where the tenant is engaging in or allowing other occupiers of, or visitors to, the dwelling to engage in such behaviour, subject to a notice period of only seven days in the case of serious anti-social behaviour. Under Section 15 of the Act, ‘a landlord of a dwelling owes to each person, who could be potentially affected, a duty to enforce the obligations of the tenant under the tenancy’.

Section 77 of the Act gives a right to refer a complaint to the Private Residential Tenancies Board (PRTB), subject to certain conditions. The PRTB may furnish, to a person who proposes to make such a complaint, the name and address of the landlord concerned. This again is subject to certain conditions.

The PRTB website address is www.prtb.ie, and contact may be made with the PRTB either by telephone at 0818 30 30 37 or by post to Private Residential Tenancies Board, PO Box 47, Clonakilty, County Cork.