John Cummins (Fine Gael)
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I missed the outset of the meeting but I know Deputy Ó Broin took up where I left off on Tuesday. I had a back and forth with IPAV and the IPOA on Tuesday. To be very clear, there is nothing to obligate the owner of a property to go back to the tenant if the offer is higher. That is very clear. That puts a lot of the concerns raised on Tuesday to rest. I asked would those bodies whether they would be relatively satisfied if that was the case and the answer was "Yes".

I will take up a few other points. On another issue I raised last week, mention was made of PRSA requirements for registering a bid. However, that might not necessarily apply in this scenario because an agent might not be in the mix at that particular point. If tenants are given 90 days to give their best price, an agent may not be involved at all. Given the penalties that apply, I am worried that somebody may come back after the fact and say that he or she offered €350,000 when, in reality, he or she only offered €300,000. What provisions will be included in the legislation to protect the owner of the property from somebody coming back after the fact and saying that a bid was, in fact, higher when it was not?