Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein)
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208. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of private rent inspections that took place in County Kildare in 2021 to date in 2022; the number of private rent inspections as a percentage of overall private rental units; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [59949/22]

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, fire safety and the safety of gas, oil and electrical installations. With very limited exemptions, these apply to all private rented accommodation. All landlords have a legal obligation to ensure that their rented properties comply with these Regulations. Responsibility for the enforcement of the Regulations rests with the relevant local authority.

Given the need for inspectors to enter tenants’ homes, pandemic restrictions greatly impacted on inspection activity in both 2020 and 2021. However, 2022 has seen a significant increase in inspection activity across the country.

Annual data in respect of the level of inspections carried out by each local authority is available on my Department's website at:

www.gov.ie/en/publication/da3fe-private-housing-market-statistics/

The number of private rental inspections undertaken by Kildare County Council in 2021 and 2022 are set out in the table below:

*Note- The Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) operates a national tenancy registration system and provides my Department with the number of private rental tenancies per local authority area. The number of rental units (requested by the Deputy) is not currently available. It should be noted that the number of tenancies will be greater than the number of rental units.