Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour)
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739. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government to provide a breakdown of the number of inspectors for private rental properties for each local authority for the years 2023 and 2024, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23707/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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The standards for rental accommodation are prescribed in the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2019. They 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.

Responsibility for the enforcement of the Regulations in the private rental sector rests with the relevant local authority. Staffing of this function is a matter for each local authority. Under section 159 of the Local Government Act 2001, each Chief Executive is responsible for the staffing and organisational arrangements necessary for carrying out the functions of the local authority for which he or she is responsible.

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 €10.5m in Exchequer funding is being made available by my Department to local authorities this year to help them meet their private rental inspection targets.

The number of rental inspections conducted by local authorities has increased significantly in recent years. Increasing from an average of 20,000 a year in the period 2005 to 2017 to over 49,000 in 2022, over 63,500 in 2023, and an all-time-high of over 80,000 in 2024. Annual data in respect of the level of inspections and enforcement actions carried out and legal actions initiated by each local authority is available on my Department's website at www.gov.ie/en/publication/da3fe-private-housing-market-statistics/.