Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 3:

In page 8, between lines 20 and 21, to insert the following:

“(8) Within 6 months of the passing of this Act, the Minister, shall lay before the Houses of the Oireachtas a report setting out further consideration by his or her Department and the Department of Justice on the transfer of responsibility for the Property Services Regulatory Authority to the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and its location within Tailte Éireann.”.

I know the Minister of State, Deputy Burke, is not accepting the amendment and that the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, outlined in some detail the reason why. However, as I have the opportunity, I want to make the case for the Department to reconsider this issue. The Property Services Regulatory Authority, as the Minister of State knows, is a very weak body and it has a very weak statutory underpinning and a voluntary code of conduct. The sectors under its aegis are very significant property service management companies, estate agents, auctioneers, valuers and so on. We all know of many stories where individuals who are looking to purchase or sell homes find navigating that process and dealing with the concerns they have about how the process operates very difficult.

There is a strong argument for either the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage or the Department of Justice to at some point revisit the legislative underpinnings of the Property Services Regulatory Authority. I know that is not for us today. The reason I tabled the amendment is because I have a strong view that so long as the Property Services Regulatory Authority sits within the Department of Justice, this will never happen and it will be very low down on its priorities given that, alongside the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, it is one of the busiest Departments in terms of legislation. This will never get on the radar of the Minister for Justice or the Secretary General or assistant secretary general in the Department of Justice. Therefore, I have made the case for a number of years that the Property Services Regulatory Authority should be under the aegis of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, which makes much more sense. Its functions have to do with the regulation of bodies that value houses and buy and sell houses or land, and property services management companies. The logical place would be this Department.

I also think, and the pre-legislative scrutiny report of our committee recommended, that this agency would be a good place to have that. Yes, it would be a significant expansion of its remit but one that is warranted. I know the Minister of State is going to read out the statement and tell me why he is not accepting the amendment, which is perfectly fine, but I would have thought any reasonable person would have accepted the logic of at least active consideration of first transferring the Property Services Regulatory Authority into the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, and then to consider whether it would sit within Tailte Éireann, where I think it would sit quite nicely, or somewhere else.

In the previous Dáil our committee wanted to have public hearings on the operations of the Property Services Regulatory Authority. Many of us represent constituents who live in apartments and there are ongoing issues about the operation and regulation of property service management agents. This committee cannot look at that issue because it does not fall within the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. Despite the fact we asked the Committee on Justice to consider it and invite us along, it never fitted within its programme and it had other work to do.

I know the Minister of State is not accepting it and that he is going to tell me this is the wrong legislation and that it broadens the scope of the Act too much, and that is all fine. However, I ask that he would take it away and look at it and, again, maybe ask the Minister to come back to our committee to see if this is a conversation that can be had. Today, we have many reports of allegations - they are only allegations - of fake auctions when people are bidding for homes. Somebody puts down a deposit on a home and then they are told that somebody else is raising the price, and there is no visibility, accountability or transparency. We know people who have put down deposits on homes only for the seller to withdraw and for the property to be back on the market several months down the line when the property price has increased further. We get complaints about certain auctioneers and valuers who, again, are alleged to have questionable practices. All a person can do today, if they feel they are not being served properly by that system, is make a complaint to the Property Services Regulatory Authority, which, with its voluntary code of conduct, can write an angrily-worded letter to the agency involved, but the system does not improve. Other European jurisdictions have much more transparent and accountable systems for valuation, auctioneering and property transactions. The fact we have not done it in this Bill is a missed opportunity but, nonetheless, it is one the Department should still actively consider with its counterparts in the Department of Justice.