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

I thank all the staff. It is not normal for us to be here at 11.15 p.m. I also thank Opposition parties and their spokespeople for working with us on a very busy schedule this week. For many reasons, it is very important that this legislation is passed before the end of the year. We flagged it a number of months ago but it is still taking a lot of time this week. I thank the non-politicians in this room among my own staff, who have worked extraordinarily hard on this and on many other legislative measures linked to housing. I thank the clerk and the rest of the team. I appreciate it as this is important legislation which will make a big difference to people's lives. We need to get it through and the staff have worked long hours to help us to do that.