James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Action to deal with anti-social behaviour and criminality is primarily a matter for An Garda Síochána.

Local authorities are responsible under the Housing Acts 1966 to 2021 for the management and maintenance of their housing stock and the management of their estates, including taking appropriate measures to counter anti-social behaviour. Section 35 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 requires all local authorities to make an Anti-Social Behaviour Strategy whose principal objectives are:

• the prevention and reduction of anti-social behaviour;
• the co-ordination of services within the housing authority directed at dealing with, or preventing or reducing, anti-social behaviour;
• the promotion of co-operation with other persons, including An Garda Síochána, in the performance of their respective functions insofar as they relate to dealing with, or the prevention or reduction of, anti-social behaviour, having regard to the need to avoid duplication of activities by the housing authority and such other persons in the performance of those functions; and
• the promotion of good estate management.

The powers of local authorities in this area were also significantly enhanced by Part 2 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2014, which provides for the issuing of a tenancy warning requiring that tenants cease any anti-social activity. Part 2 of that Act also gives local authorities the power to recover possession of their dwellings from households in serious breach of their tenancy agreements, including engaging in anti-social behaviour. In addition, the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1997 gives local authorities power to secure court orders excluding individual household members, other than the tenant, engaged in anti-social behaviour from local authority owned houses and local authority estates.

A comprehensive suite of guidance documents and circulars has been prepared by my Department and circulated to the local authority sector, including www.housingagency.ie/sites/default/files/publications/84.%20Good-Practice-Guidelines_Preventing-and-Combating-Anti-Social-Behaviour_2003.pdf.

The Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) was established as a quasi-judicial independent statutory body under the Residential Tenancies Acts 2004-2025 (RTA) to regulate the rental sector; provide information to tenants and landlords; maintain a national register of tenancies; resolve disputes between tenants and landlords; and conduct research and provide information to inform policy.

The remit of the RTB covers the private rental sector, the not-for-profit housing providers commonly known as Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) and Student Specific Accommodation (SSA).

In the case of private rented dwellings, landlords are responsible for enforcing the obligations that apply to their tenants under the RTA. The RTA in this regard, prohibits a tenant engaging in anti-social behaviour in, or in the vicinity of, a dwelling to which the RTA applies.

It also allows a landlord to terminate any tenancy where the tenant is engaging in or allowing others to engage in such behaviour, subject to a notice period of only 7 days in the case of serious anti-social behaviour or 28 days in the case of less serious but persistent behaviour.

Section 77 of the RTA provides that third parties who are directly and adversely affected by tenants engaging in anti-social behaviour may, subject to certain conditions, refer a complaint to the RTB against a landlord who has failed to enforce the tenant’s obligations. A third party complainant must have taken reasonable steps to resolve the matter by communicating or attempting to communicate with the parties to the tenancy concerned.