Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein)
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369. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of private rent inspections that took place in County Kildare in 2019 and to date in 2020; if the same data as a percentage of overall private rental units will be provided; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36372/20]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2019 specify requirements in relation to a range of matters, such as structural repair, sanitary facilities, heating, ventilation, natural light and the safety of gas, oil and electrical supplies. With very limited exemptions, these apply to all private rented residential accommodation.

All landlords have a legal obligation to ensure that their rented properties, regardless of tenancy type, comply with these regulations. Responsibility for the enforcement of the Regulations rests with the relevant local authority.

Data in respect of inspections undertaken by Kildare County Council in 2019 and to the end of September 2020 is set out in the table below. This includes the total number of inspections as a percentage of the total number of Kildare tenancies registered with the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) at the end of the previous year.

While pandemic restrictions have greatly reduced the number of inspections carried out this year, the number of inspections conducted by Kildare County Council almost tripled from 2017 to 2019, increasing from 446 in 2017 to 597 in 2018 and 1,261 in 2019. My Department provided a subvention of €238,300 over this period to assist the Council meet its inspection obligations. 

My Department has made significant Exchequer funding available to all local authorities in recent years, with the result that the number of inspections undertaken nationally more than doubled from 19,645 in 2017 to 40,998 in 2019, with a similar increase in the number of properties becoming compliant from 3,329 to 7,206. In order to assist local authorities increase inspection rates further and strengthen compliance, an increased budget of €10m has been approved for 2021. 

Detailed information in relation to inspections carried out by each local authority since 2005 is available on my Department's website at the following link: