Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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38. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government his plans to amend the Residential Tenancies Acts to bring local authorities tenants under the terms of the acts and Residential Tenancies Board in order that they will have access to the same rights as private rented sector tenants and tenants of associated housing bodies. [8992/17]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The issue of the regulation of local authority housing, and the application of the Residential Tenancies Act to that sector, was carefully considered during the drafting of the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Act 2015. Unlike Approved Housing Body tenancies, social housing provided by local authorities is governed by an extensive legislative code which is set out in the Housing Acts. This code sets out the law in relation to social housing and provides extensively for the rights and obligations of local authorities and their tenants. The legislation recognises the democratic nature of local government by assigning certain housing functions to the elected members. In addition, local government legislation more generally provides for significant roles for the elected members in overseeing the work of the local authority executive.

Against that background, I have no plans at this stage to extend the application of the Residential Tenancies Act to the local authority sector, a move which would involve considerable complexity. The priority remains to secure the incremental extension of the Act to the Approved Housing Body sector.