Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

We received a request from the Business Committee regarding the Minister's request for a waiver of pre-legislative scrutiny, PLS, of the Residential Tenancies Bill on the grounds of urgency and time constraints. The Business Committee referred the matter to this committee and the question for consideration is whether a waiver of PLS should be granted.

I will read the note on privilege. Members attending from their Oireachtas offices are protected by absolute privilege in respect of their participation in this meeting. This means they have an absolute defence against any defamation action for anything they say at this meeting. Members are asked not to abuse this privilege. It is my duty as Chair to ensure this privilege is not abused. Members are familiar with all the other aspects of privilege when attending in Leinster House. Since members are not attending in the committee room, the Debates Office has asked that each speaker be clearly identified by name to help ensure the accuracy of the official report.

A request was made to waive PLS of the Residential Tenancies Bill 2021 due to the urgency of passing the Bill through the Houses of the Oireachtas in a timely manner. We were requested to waive PLS as it was felt that the time it would take would mean there would not be time for the Bill to pass through the Houses. I sought yesterday to try to get a consensus view from the committee that it would waive PLS on the basis of urgency. We could not get consensus on that. A vote was requested, so we have brought the committee together today to vote on it. I intend to put the question that the committee agrees to the request to waive PLS on the Residential Tenancies Bill 2021.