Minister ‘unaware’ of dramatic drop in rented accommodation inspections
Issued : Friday 7 March, 2008
Statement by Ciarán Lynch TD
The Labour Party’s concern about the sharp falloff in the level of enforcement of accommodation standards in the private rented sector does not seem to be shared by Housing Minister Batt O’Keeffe.
This week I asked Minister O’Keeffe whether his attention had been drawn to the fact that the percentage of private rented dwellings inspected by local authorities dropped from 32% to 7.4%, and what measures he proposed to put in place to address the problem, but unusually for a written PQ, it seemed to catch him unawares.
The Minister’s reply would suggest that he had not been briefed by his officials about what can only be described as a shocking decline in the rate of inspections in the sector.
I wonder if Minister O’Keeffe is even aware that the figures to which I referred are available. The information is readily available in the Annual Housing Statistics Bulletins, published by the Minister’s own Department. I have the figures myself and I would be only too happy to send a copy over to him. In fact I would be happy to let the Minister use the modest resources of my own office if he feels that that would help expedite a resolution in this matter.
'This is the second time that Min. O'Keeffe has failed to answer this question having already being asked during Minister's Question time last week.
So bad is the level of inspections carried out by some local authorities that if they were to carry out even one inspection it would mean that their inspection rate would increase by 100%!
In reply during that debate he said that responsibility for enforcing the regulations rested with the relevant local authority, “supported by a dedicated stream of funding allocated by my Department”. Given this fact what I want to know now is why is he not on the phone to individual City and County Managers asking them what it is that they are doing with this money?
If Minister O’Keeffe was answering a question like this as part of mock leaving like those being taken by thousands of students around the country, I think the advice he would get would be to study harder and consider dropping down to doing the pass paper!
Tenants are forced to pay exorbitant rents in houses and apartments across the country, and as a result of that are very often in a very vulnerable situation. These people deserve whatever protection we can give them and they are simply not getting that.
