Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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621. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if the suspension of the Residential Tenancies Board’s allocations to local authorities for inspections of rental accommodation continued into 2017; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43981/17]

Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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622. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the ringfenced budget 2018 funding for inspections of rental accommodation in 2018 as committed in the rental strategy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43982/17]

Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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623. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the status of the shared service for inspections by local authorities of privately rented accommodation promised in the Rebuilding Ireland strategy; the overall responsibility for management, oversight and delivery of all aspects of the inspections process; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43983/17]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 621 to 623, inclusive, together.

Section 176 of the Residential Tenancies Act provides that the fees received by the Residential Tenancies Board under the Act shall be paid into, or disposed of for the benefit of, the Exchequer in such manner as I may direct. By various Ministerial Directions since 2005, a percentage of fees received by the RTB under the Act has been allocated for transfer to local authorities for the purpose of the performance of their functions under the Housing Acts in relation to private rented accommodation, including rental standards inspections.

Since 1 July 2016, the RTB retains the entirety of the fees received under the Act to defray its costs. The RTB is in a position to continue the support for local authority inspections of rental accommodation until the end of 2017, using surpluses accumulated in the allocations for local authorities over previous years.

In December 2016, the Strategy for the Rental Sector, one of the key measures promised under Rebuilding Ireland: Action Plan for Housing and Homeless, was published. The Strategy sets out a range of measures under the headings of Security, Supply, Standards and Services to address both immediate and long-term issues affecting the supply, cost, accessibility and quality of rental accommodation.

Action 22 of the Strategy commits to developing a more efficient and effective approach to inspections, through a shared services type model, to increase efficiency, transparency and standardisation in inspection and enforcement across all local authority areas.

To this end, my Department has established a working group, in conjunction with the County and City Management Association, Local Authorities and the RTB, to examine and develop the most appropriate approach to achieve this aim.  The Group is developing proposals for a system of shared support services for the standards inspections and enforcement functions for the 31 local authorities, in areas including ICT, legal services, capacity development and resource and performance management.

Additional funding is being made available to support local authorities' inspections and increase the numbers of private rental properties being inspected, with detailed funding arrangements for 2018 to be announced in due course.  The Strategy for the Rental Sector sets the objective to increase inspection numbers incrementally each year with the aim of achieving a 25% annual inspection coverage rate by 2021. To achieve this, annual targets for both inspection and compliance will be agreed with local authorities.