Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Amendments Nos. 137, 157, and 170 provide that, where a receiver is appointed to a rented dwelling, that receiver will take on the responsibilities of the landlord. We are examining this matter and there is a strong section on it in the rental strategy. It is more legally complex than I had believed. We wanted to transfer the responsibilities in terms of tenancy protections and so on that would normally have been a landlord's to a receiver, but it turned out not to be as simple as that when we started looking into it. We have agreed to set up a working group with the Department of Justice and Equality to go as far as we can. There are obvious things that a receiver cannot be asked to do, for example, repay a deposit because the receiver would not have got the deposit in the first place. I cannot accept the amendments as proposed, but members can expect some progress in this area.