Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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293. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the amount allocated to each local authority for rental property inspections to date in 2021; and the projected increase in funding for this purpose for 2022 and 2023. [32894/21]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The Strategy for the Rental Sector sets out a series of measures to be introduced to ensure the quality of private rental accommodation by strengthening the applicable standards and improving the inspection and enforcement systems.

The Strategy recognises the need for additional resources to be provided to local authorities to aid increased inspections of properties and ensure greater compliance with the Regulations. Provision was made for €2.5 million to be made available to local authorities in 2018, increasing to €4.5 million in 2019 with corresponding inspection rate targets of 10% and 15% of tenancies respectively. This has enabled local authorities to build inspection capacity incrementally. Significant progress was made across the sector. The number of inspections more than doubled from 19,645 in 2017 to 40,728 in 2019.

The 2020 inspection rate target was 20% and €6 million of Exchequer funding was made available to local authorities. An increased budget of €10 million is being made available in 2021 to facilitate a targeted inspection rate of 25%. However, pandemic restrictions have severely impacted on inspection activity since March 2020. In response to the pandemic some local authorities have been piloting virtual inspections and my Department is encouraging and supporting this initiative by providing Exchequer funding to those that are participating.

The table below sets out the payments made to date in 2021 to each local authority which given that payments are made in arrears are in respect of inspections carried out in Q4 2020:

Inspection data in respect of Q1 2021 is currently being validated and payments in respect of this period will issue shortly. Future funding will be considered as part of the normal estimates budgeting process with the aim of maintaining my Department’s subvention to local authorities at levels which assist them in meeting their inspection targets.