Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

In the very limited time available to me, I wish to focus on inspections of private rented accommodation or rather the lack thereof. The minimum standards for rented accommodation are set out in the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations and the responsibility for inspecting houses to ensure that they meet the standards rests with the local authorities. The recent figures available from the National Oversight and Audit Commission are from 2020. Six local authorities, including Galway city, where one would expect to find quite a lot of rented accommodation, carried out no inspections whatsoever last year. In Clare, one in 20 private rented accommodation units were inspected. The Minister of State might think that is bad but it is good by the standards of all the other local authorities. In Carlow, the county of the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, there were no inspections at all last year. In Limerick, one in 18 private accommodation units was inspected. That is even better than Clare. In Dublin, one in 34 units was inspected. The figure in Cork was one unit in 48.

Based on that, if I was a lawyer and I knew somebody who had a hovel that he or she wanted to rent out for a lot of money, I would say he or she should take their chances because the chance of being inspected, certainly in Cork city, are pretty low and in Carlow they are next to non-existent. I would say they should go and take their chances because nothing will be done about it.

Last year, the inspections were down on the previous year. Nationally, just 6.7% of tenancies were the subject of an inspection. That was due to Covid of course. It is a great excuse for every State failing. However, in 2019, the year before, it was only 9.9%. Although it was not mentioned in the Sinn Féin motion, and it chose for good reason to concentrate on escalating rents and other such matters, the Government did mention it as one of the great things it has done. It indicated that it had increased funding for inspections by 66%. If we increase funding by 66% and the number of inspections in Cork increased by a similar percentage, I calculate that we would get a one in 30 chance of being inspected, as opposed to a one in 48 chance. Either way, it is completely unacceptable.

I first raised the issue in 2012 in the Dáil. The then Minister responsible for housing undertook to do something about it. In 2017, that same former Minister raised it as an Opposition spokesperson and, lo and behold, said-----

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