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

The figures from the CSO show that in the year after the regulation was introduced the actual number of bulk purchases of houses and duplexes increased. The regulation does not include apartments. If there had been some proper consultation process, there would have been a better regulation. Notwithstanding the fact that I supported the decision, albeit belated, of Government to move on the issue, the regulation is exceptionally weak. There is a strong argument, which we can have on the floor of the Dáil rather than here, that it has not worked. If that is the Minister of State's sole example - and I would invite him to see if there are others - of this, it strengthens the argument as to why there should be "shall" rather than "may". In an emergency, the consultation could be very short. For example, the Minister could decide to stop investment funds from bulk buying family homes. That is great, we support the Minister. He or she can then say there will be an expedited public consultation process. It could be done in a short period but there would be some public engagement. I cannot think of any set of circumstances where it could conceivably be thought that there should be no engagement with anybody at all and Government just decides something and thinks that would be good enough to get it right. That is a recipe for getting something wrong.