Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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Go raibh míle maith ag an Aire mar gheall ar a chur i láthair. I wish to mention briefly the issue of upward-only rent reviews. I spoke to the owner of a small business over the weekend who has three outlets. Two of them are under upward only rents and he is having major difficulty getting a reduction in them. There is the threatened closure of B&Q in Waterford and Athlone and the other outlets are also under major pressure. Upward-only rent reviews are costing hundreds of jobs each month in this State. The advice from the Attorney General, which none of us has seen, is that we cannot do anything about it without a constitutional amendment. Will there be a constitutional amendment to make that change? Last week, when the Minister of State, Deputy John Perry, was asked about upward-only rents he said that they were not an issue in the closure of businesses in Ireland. I considered that a shocking thing for a senior Government Minister to say. Does the Minister agree with the Minister of State that upward-only rents do not have an effect on the closure of businesses and does he have confidence in the Minister of State, Deputy Perry's, ability to do the job, given that so many businesses have closed due to upward-only rents?