Mr. Patrick Davitt:

I am happy with what the Deputy said in the beginning and with what he said right along, with a few amendments to it. He is right that a property sale could happen quicker, providing the landlord and tenant are in agreement. If they are not in agreement, that is where we run into a problem, because the property will have to be vacant to get the proper amount of money for it. The Deputy is right and has a good idea of where we are going. We are not here to disturb any situation. We are here to point out the different scenarios that can happen. Taking that into consideration, if that happens at the moment, landlords and tenants do something similar. If that is the case, from what the Deputy is saying, I do not know why this Bill would be here at all.

In any event, having the Bill here, I still think the 90 days is not correct. I will give the part of the Bill for the Deputy to look at. I will not argue the case. I refer to page 15 of the Bill, in head 39(b)(iii), which asks for a further period. If we can get an explanation for that, we will see what the situation is. As the Deputy says, at the moment, it is only in the event of a disagreement that a property will have to be shown.

If a tenant agrees to pay the money for the property and the owner agrees to sell it, of course that is great. The legal end that we have been speaking about is a different situation. We know that a Bill is going through the Dáil to try to decrease these periods.