Sinn Féin spokesperson on Housing Eoin Ó Broin TD has commented on the findings of the Local Authority Performance Indicator Report 2018 published by the National Oversight and Audit Commission (NOAC).

The report indicated that the private rental inspection processes currently used by local authorities is unacceptably low, varies greatly from area to area and does not provide tenants with consistency.

Deputy Ó Broin said:

“The private rental inspection rate contained in the report is based on data from 2018 which indicated that there were 322,230 registered tenancies at time and out of these 23, 824 homes were inspected, just 7% of properties.

“The report worryingly shows a variance in the level of inspections and compliance from local authority to local authority.

“For example, in Carlow, 10% of the private rented homes were inspected and 95% of these homes were found to be non-compliant with standards regulations.

“However, in Cavan 20% of the rental stock was inspected and only 29.5% of these homes were found not to be compliant with standards.

“Galway City only inspected 1.8% of registered rental properties and 99% of these were non-compliant with standards.

“The report also indicates that in all of the nine local authorities with more than 10,000 tenancies only two local authorities, Fingal and South Dublin, reached inspections rates of over 10%.

 “The low level of inspections across most local authorities is not surprising when you consider the lack of resources provided to local authorities.

“The government must prioritise the allocation of greater resources for Local Authorities, so they can move towards inspecting at a minimum 25% of rental properties per year.

“€4.5m in funding was allocated by central government for this purpose for 2019 and in the first months of the year €1.8m, for 40% of the funding available, was paid to local authorities.

“Sinn Féin in our Alternative Budget for 2020 has allocated an additional €5m in funding to help local authorities to move towards the 25% target more quickly than the government’s proposed timeline of 2021.

“More and more people are living in the private rented sector and we need to ensure that these home meet minimum standards. Local authorities must be adequately resourced to conduct these duties.

ENDS//

Link to NOAC report where details of inspections are on p 50 and link to PQ response detailing 2019 spend.
http://noac.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/NOAC-Performance-Indicator-Report-2018.pdf
https://www.kildarestreet.com/wrans/?id=2019-09-24a.1386&s=section%3Awrans+speaker%3A407#g1387.q