Fine Gael senator hasn’t registered rental property with RTB – tenants can't claim tax credit

The Ditch editors -

A Fine Gael senator's rental property isn't registered with the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB).

Landlord Emer Currie didn’t register the tenancy despite senior politicians being caught out over the past year for similar failures. Her tenants will be unable to claim the rental tax credit until she registers the tenancy – a government initiative promoted by her party. “We want to put more money in your pocket – and one of the ways we are doing that is through the rent tax credit,” reads Fine Gael's website.

Though Currie claimed to The Ditch, “There is currently a technical issue” with her account and that she has “been in contact with the RTB about this repeatedly in recent months,” landlords can simply register tenancies by post. “Paper forms can be downloaded… completed and sent by post to Residential Tenancies Board,” according to the organisation’s website.

Failure to register a property with the RTB is a criminal offence with fines of up to €4,000 or six months’ imprisonment.

Former county councillor Emer Currie has been the registered owner of a Lucan, county Dublin house since 2006. Though the property has been let since at least 2019, the tenancy isn’t currently registered with the RTB.

Currie said this hasn’t always been the case.

“My property has been historically registered with the RTB. There is currently a technical issue with my account on the RTB side. I have been in contact with the RTB about this repeatedly in recent months and await a resolution from them,” she told The Ditch.

In recent days Fine Gael has used social media to urge renters to register for the €500 rental tax credit. Currie’s own tenants won’t be able to claim the tax credit until she registers the tenancy with the RTB, according to the Revenue Commissioner’s rules for the scheme.

Currie was taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s Dublin West constituency running mate in the 2020 general election.

She was a member of Fingal County Council from 2019 to 2020 and was nominated to the Seanad by the then taoiseach Micheál Martin in June 2020, just months after failing to win a Dáil seat at the general election. She is Fine Gael’s Seanad spokesperson for special education and inclusion.