Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent)
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296. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government if houses which are rented to a local authority under the RAS scheme are exempt from registration (details supplied) with the Residential Tenancies Board, in view of the fact that the guidelines for registration with the RTB state that a dwelling is exempt if it is let by or to a public authority; if a local authority is considered a public body under this exemption; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30369/17]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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Section 134 of the Residential Tenancies Act 2004 states that a landlord of a dwelling shall apply to the Residential Tenancies Board to register the tenancy of a dwelling.  A ‘landlord’ is defined in the Act as the person entitled to receive the rent paid in respect of a dwelling by the tenant. Under the Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS), the local authority nominates a RAS recipient to the accommodation who signs a residential tenancy agreement with the landlord.  The main "landlord and tenant" relationship remains between the property owner and the RAS tenant.  The local authority will be party to this agreement as guarantor of the rent only.  The local authority is not the landlord, nor is the property ‘let by or to a public authority’.  The landlord is the person to whom the local authority pays the rent.  Under the 2004 Act, the landlord must register the tenancy with the Residential Tenancies Board.