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

It does not, though we are looking forward to that legislation and my colleague, Deputy Munster, will be leading on it for us. It is disappointing the Commission has overreached its remit, but that is a matter for another committee on another day. My question is a more basic one. We know this does not work. The very specific enforcement provisions set out in subsections (3) and (4) do not work and are unworkable, so why leave them in? For example, one of the issues we had when the legislation was being discussed was whether it would be better to have administrative spot fines similar to those for road traffic offences rather than a court procedure where it is almost impossible to prove. If somebody wanted to challenge that, it would be on the short-term let host to take the matter to court. Likewise, why not include, as we argued at the time, a specific provision that under planning law it would not only be an offence to be short-term let that does not have the required planning permission, but it would also be an offence under planning law for the advertisement of that short-term letting. That would capture platforms. An administrative daily fine, again not unlike a parking fine, would have been the way.

This will not be the first time the Minister of State hears me make this argument and it will come in a couple of other sections. Why leave in legislation that is inoperable in this Bill? I imagine one of the things Government is thinking is that the Minister, Deputy Martin's, legislation will capture this because the enforcement will not be on whether a person has planning permission but on whether he or she is on the Fáilte Ireland register, and people can only get on the register if they prove they have planning permission compliance. However, I still do not understand why we have legislation that absolutely, unequivocally does not work. Why are we leaving it in our legislative code when this is meant to be legislation that cleans up and sorts out the inadequacies and inefficiencies of previous planning Acts? I am not going to press the matter further but I am interested in the Minister of State's response. I may table Report Stage amendments but it seems bizarre we would leave something in when it does not work, cannot work, will not and is not going to be used.

I am not talking about the overall provision. I am talking specifically about subsections (3) and (4).