Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
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20. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if his attention has been drawn to the fact that families on the rental accommodation scheme are being displaced because lending institutions that repossess their rental properties due to the landlords arrears are refusing to keep tenants. [20487/13]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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The grounds upon which a tenancy in the private rented residential sector may be legally terminated are clearly set out in the Residential Tenancies Act 2004. The Act provides the main regulatory framework for the private rented residential sector and for the operation of the Private Residential Tenancies Board (PRTB). The maximum duration of a tenancy under the Act is four years, after which a new tenancy must be registered with the Board. Where a tenant has been in occupation of a dwelling for a continuous period of 6 months, and no notice of termination has been served in respect of the tenancy before the expiry of the period of 6 months, the tenancy continues in being for the remainder of the four year period and this is referred to in the Act as a Part 4 tenancy. A landlord may not serve a notice of termination on such a tenant except in very clearly defined circumstances such as a failure by the tenant to comply with his or her obligations in relation to the tenancy, where the landlord intends to sell the property within 3 months after the termination of the tenancy or where the landlord requires the dwelling for his or her own occupation or for that of a family member.

The Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS) is an initiative announced by the Government in July 2004 to cater for the accommodation needs of  persons in  receipt of rent supplement, normally for more than 18 months and who were assessed as having a long-term housing need.  One of the main features of the scheme is that local authorities in sourcing accommodation for these households make use of the private sector and enter into contractual arrangements to secure medium to long-term availability of rented accommodation.  A Residential Tenancy Agreement is entered into by all three parties and, as with the other such arrangements, the tenancy is governed b y the Residential Tenancies Act 2004.   Notwithstanding this, as RAS is deemed to be a social housing support, the local authority retains the responsibility to source further accommodation for a RAS household, should the dwelling that the household is living in become unavailable through no fault of their own.