Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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105. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government if he will publish the membership of the rental strategy working group; the number of times it has met; and the persons or bodies it has met and received submissions from. [39327/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Pillar 4 of the Government’s Rebuilding IrelandAction Plan commits to developing a comprehensive strategy for the rental sector in Q4 2016. In order to progress the preparation of the strategy, an expert working group was established bringing together key personnel from across my Department and from relevant agencies - the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB), the Housing Agency, the National Economic and Social Council (NESC) and Local Authorities. The working group is chaired by the Head of the Social Housing and Rental Policy Division of my Department. Additional members were co-opted on to the group to address specific issues as the need arose. Public consultation is an important element of the development of the Rental Strategy. A stakeholder consultation event, which I chaired myself, took place on 20 October 2016 attracting over 100 attendees. In addition, a public consultation process, with an open call for submissions, attracted 498 replies from a wide range of stakeholders.

The expert working group has met on 6 occasions since its establishment in mid- September 2016. A number of sub group meetings on specific issues were also held. The advice of the expert group, together with outcome of the consultation process, has been central to the preparation of the strategy for the rental sector which is expected to be published very shortly.