{"id":494778,"date":"2026-06-11T19:02:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T19:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/494778\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T19:02:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T19:02:09","slug":"residential-tenancies-board-chairman-owen-keegan-resigns-two-years-into-five-year-term-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/494778\/","title":{"rendered":"Residential Tenancies Board chairman Owen Keegan resigns, two years into five-year term \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Dublin City Council<\/a> chief Owen Keegan has resigned as chairman of the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB)<\/a>, less than two years into a five-year term. <\/p>\n

Amid strain in the housing sector with rents at a record high, Keegan\u2019s departure heralds yet another leadership change in the body that regulates the private rental market.<\/p>\n

The resignation leaves Minister for Housing James Browne<\/a> with a new vacancy to fill, four months after the search for a \u201chousing czar\u201d led to Garret Doocey\u2019s appointment as deputy secretary general in the Department of Housing, with a mandate to spur housing activation. <\/p>\n

Keegan is one of five individuals since 2020 who have held the post of RTB director or interim director with responsibility for day-to-day command of the organisation. He became RTB chairman<\/a> in November 2024 after eight months as interim director. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve stepped down for personal reasons,\u201d Keegan said in reply to questions, declining to elaborate.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI served a period as interim director and was chairman coming up for two years and felt I\u2019ve done my bit.\u201d <\/p>\n

The RTB said Keegan served as chairman at \u201ca time of substantial progress and development\u201d in the organisation. \u201cHis tenure included the RTB\u2019s successful implementation of significant changes to rental law from 1[st] March 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new rent controls marked the biggest shake-up of the sector in a decade, with landlords permitted to reset rents to market rates in between tenancies.<\/p>\n

They overhauled rent pressure zone legislation, giving landlords the right to increase rents by 2 per cent or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower. Tenant security of tenure was also strengthened, with the introduction of six-year tenancies of \u201cminimum duration\u201d.<\/p>\n

Still, the Opposition heavily criticised the new rules. <\/p>\n

RTB director Rosemary Steen thanked Keegan for his \u201csignificant service\u201d to the board. <\/p>\n

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\u201cOwen brought a wealth of experience and a long track record of public service to the RTB. He has made an important contribution to delivering a rental sector that works for the people of Ireland,\u201d Steen said.<\/p>\n

Steen was appointed director in September 2024 in succession to Keegan\u2019s term as interim director. He took over in February 2024 from Niall Byrne, who was RTB director for two years from January 2022. P\u00e1draig McGoldrick was RTB interim director after March 2020 in succession to former director Rosalind Carroll.<\/p>\n

The Department of Housing<\/a> said Browne accepted Keegan\u2019s resignation, adding that a successor will be appointed in due course.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to warmly thank Mr Keegan for his service in this role and his contribution to the work of the RTB, both as chair and previously in his term as interim director of the RTB,\u201d the Minister said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe played a significant role in critical work around implementing the changes in rental legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Dublin City Council chief Owen Keegan has resigned as chairman of the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB), less…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[12466,13288,3662,61,60,7116,43,13696],"class_list":["post-494778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-department-of-housing-local-government-and-heritage","tag-dublin-city-council","tag-housing-crisis","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-james-browne","tag-news","tag-residential-tenancies-board-prtb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}