Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Independent)
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428. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of rental inspections completed by local authorities, by county, in 2023 and to date in 2024, in tabular form. [37031/24]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The standards for rental accommodation are prescribed in the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2019 and 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 supplies.

These Regulations apply to all properties let or available for let. Landlords have a legal obligation to ensure that their rented properties comply with the standards set down in the Regulations, with few exemptions. Responsibility for the enforcement of the Regulations in the private rental sector rests with the relevant local authority.

The Government is committed to ensuring that a stock of high quality accommodation is available for those who live in the private rented sector. A total of €9 million in Exchequer funding is being made available by my Department to local authorities this year to help them meet their private rental inspection obligations. The number of private rental inspections undertaken by local authorities rose to circa 49,000 in 2022 and an all-time-high of over 63,500 in 2023.

Data for 2023 in respect of the level of inspection and enforcement activity by each local authority is available on my Department's website at the following link:

Inspection data is submitted to my Department on a quarterly basis. Provisional data in respect of quarters 1 and 2 in 2024, is as set out in the following table: