Can a landlord ask if you are employed?

Yeah. Hard to believe you're a landlord asking a question like that.

F13   [   (3B) For the purposes of  section 6(1)(c)  , the discriminatory grounds shall (in addition to the grounds specified in  subsection (2)  ) include the ground that as between any two persons, that one is in receipt of rent supplement (within the meaning of  section 6(8)  ), housing assistance (construed in accordance with Part 4 of the  Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2014  ) or any payment under the Social Welfare Acts and the other is not (the  “   housing assistance ground   ”   ).   ]

F18   [   (8) In this section,  ‘   rent supplement   ’   means a payment made under  section 198  (3) of the  Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005  towards the amount of rent payable by a person in respect of his or her residence.   ]

Anything that could be construed as trying to differentiate working tenants and social welfare tenants is liable under the amendments to the equality act and awards are given by a governing body other then the courts. They can be substantial. This goes from the more obvious questions like outright asking for work references/employment type, to possibly things like soliciting bank statements(looking for regular pay from employers), enforcing large deposits which would be unrealistic for social welfare tenants to provide or other possible scenarios which could be construed as discriminating like querying commute distance/times.

As a Landlord, your options are extremely limited in vetting tenants and if possible, simply giving no reason or response for selection of tenants is probably the best option.

To be fair the legislation changes so often I dont know how anyone can keep up with what it is now.

Was a landlords agent for 20years. I used to advertise apartments and ask the people to email about interest and viewings, so once I had their email address I could do a lot of detective work before meeting them. Facebook profiles would tell you an awful alot about a person, if they work, are untidy, like parties etc. It's amazing what you would pick up in the FB photos alone. In 20 years I only had one bad tenant and he was the one person I never checked because he was a working professional.

It’s true you can’t discriminate based on HAP, receiving social welfare, etc. However you can ask for work references and bank statements. It is unreasonable to expect a landlord to hand over the keys to a property with hundreds of thousands without the ability to verify if the potential tenants can afford the rent (whether through HAP or wages). Especially when getting uncooperative tenants out is as difficult as it is here. Threshold have work refs., payslips, and bank statements on their list of docs landlords can ask for:

https://www.threshold.ie/advice/seeking-private-rented-accommodation/what-information-can-a-landlord-request-from-me/

Can a landlord not ask prospective tenants to provide proof of ability to pay? I always thought that was a basic part of a contract - one party provides the goods or services and the other party provides payment. How a tenant pays shouldn't matter to the landlord whether its all salary/wages, all social welfare, or a mixture. A tenant can view a property and check that it meets standards and is suitable for their needs, a landlord needs to check the tenant can fulfill their side of the contract. Obligations on both sides.

If I were a landlord and someone didnt send me up front checkable previous landlord and work references, a note about themselves and their ability to pay etc. (a landlord pack as someone said above). I would just ignore and move on to the next person.

In fact I what a mate did who used to be a landlord was he would ask all applicants to tell a little about themselves. If they didnt supply all the info along with work refs he wouldnt contact them back. The ones who did, he picked his top 5, did the checks (called their work, called there previous 3 landlords. The current one he took anything good they said with a pinch of salt. He was more interested in the ones before that) in advance and invited them to view. Some already had moved by the time he invited them, but it always worked out for him.

Wouldnt take too long to figure out a fake reference to be fair.

Especially when you are talking to the fake.

Hello fake Landlord, did you register the tenancy and if so what was tenancy registration number? Sure if you don't have it the tenant will. And if neither of you do, well the next potential tenant will.

And the falsifying of documents is considered to be fraud.

Are you missing the point on purpose? References help sift the good from the bad. They're not foolproof. But if someone has been employed for a continuous period of time, it suggests that they're at least somewhat responsible and would be more likely to pay their rent and not wreck the place. It's a percentages game.

There will always be dishonest people like yourself who will provide fake documents or supply a mate's phone number but in general most people won't do a very good job of it.

A mate of mine rented out his place to a family he got a good vibe off. He was contacted a few months later by the wife saying that the hubby had legged it home and she was left to mind the kids and would have to go on hap. He had to spend 4k to get it up to hap standard and a fair bit of hassle to organize trades etc.

The hubby moved out for a couple of weeks til the hap got sorted and is back now with a fresher beemer! My mate shrugged his shoulders n said if he rats them out it could be 2 years of no rent to get them out.

The chance that someone who needs to provide fake references will actually pay are probably quite low.

It's public information on the rtb website.

What is? Do you mean faking references or a landlord asking about employment?

Yup. And it's not even reliably accurate. My (owner occupied) house still appears on it but hasn't been rented since maybe 2019. My last rented place isn't on it now although I know it was registered and I know it is currently occupied by a new tenant and there's a very above board letting agent involved.