Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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439. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will consider including city and county councils, and voluntary housing bodies as part of the Private Residency Tenancy Board remit under the upcoming amendments to the Residency Tenancy Act in order that persons who have issues with these organisations tenants may be afforded the same resolutions as private tenants and landlords have under the remit of PRTB (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19504/14]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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The Residential Tenancies (Amendment)(No. 2) Bill 2012 is currently before the Oireachtas and will amend the Residential Tenancies Act 2004 to provide for the inclusion of the Approved Housing Body (AHB) sector within the remit of the Residential Tenancies Act. The extension of the Residential Tenancies Act to AHB tenancies will provide greater security of tenure for AHB tenants, extend the rights and obligations in the Act to AHB landlords and tenants and provide them with access to the PRTB dispute resolution service. The Bill has passed all stages in the Dáil and S econd S tage in the Seanad. It is expected that it will be enacted by the end of the forthcoming summer legislative term.

While action to deal with anti-social behaviour is primarily a matter for An Garda Síochána, landlords are responsible for enforcing the obligations that apply to their tenants under the Residential Tenancies Act 2004. The Act prohibits a tenant from engag ing in 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 others to engage in such behaviour. A notice period of 7 days applies in the case of serious anti-social behaviour or 28 days in the case of less serious but persistent behaviour. The Act also provides that a third party affected by anti-social behaviour may take a case to the Private Residential Tenancies Board against a landlord who has failed to enforce a tenant’s obligation not to engage in anti-social behaviour.

Unlike AHB tenancies, social housing provided by local authorities is governed by a specific legislative code that provides extensively for the rights and obligations of local authorities and their tenants. The application of the Residential Tenancies Act to local authority dwellings was carefully considered during the drafting of the Residential Tenancies (Amendment)(No. 2) Bill 2012. In view of the corpus of specific legislation already in place and the size of the sector that it covers (approximately 110,000 tenancies), it would be a significant undertaking to extend the remit of the Residential Tenancies Act to the local authority sector. Accordingly, the Government’s immediate focus is on the incremental extension of the Residential Tenancies Act to the AHB sector.