Dan Boyle (Cork South Central, Green Party)

Once again we are here on a Thursday afternoon at the end of a Dáil week discussing emergency legislation. Not only is this is a repetition of a process we went through two weeks ago, it is something that has happened regularly in the life of this Government. I suspect that any analysis would show that this Government has processed more emergency legislation than any previous Government. It is unsatisfactory that we have had many debates on emergency legislation, at short notice, at the end of the Dáil week.

The Landlord and Tenant (Ground Rents) Bill 2005 has been introduced in a similar fashion to a Bill that was debated in the House two weeks ago. We need to ask whether the Government has got its act together in this regard. I refer to the British-Irish Agreement (Amendment) Bill 2005, introduced by the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs two weeks ago. It was clear that certain cross-Border bodies were facing difficulties in acquiring the fee simple of properties because the UK legislation in this area was far more progressive than that in this jurisdiction. We needed to amend our legislation to ensure that people could not compromise properties belonging to cross-Border bodies, particular Waterways Ireland, by taking commercial advantage of them.

The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, two weeks later, is trying to plug a similar loophole that affects IDA Ireland, Shannon Development and Údarás na Gaeltachta. I wonder whether we will find at a later stage that other loopholes need to be plugged. Do we need to legislate to give similar protection to assets owned by other State agencies and Departments? I refer to the VECs and the Health Service Executive, for example.

Given that the Government has panicked by producing two Bills to plug two loopholes, it is clear that it does not know what part of the dyke it will have to stick its thumb in next. The Minister needs to respond proactively on this issue. It is not as if the Government has not been forewarned about the issue of property rights. Although 13 months have passed since the All-Party Committee on the Constitution produced its report on property rights with great fanfare, no legislative action has been taken to try to improve this country's property law.

The Oireachtas is about to pass the second of two emergency Bills, but the many people who continue to live under the "anachronism" of ground rents, as Deputy Burton called it, will not benefit. Such people will continue to suffer as a consequence of the Government's failure to issue an appropriate legislative response. My house has a ground rent, which is payable to a local authority. Perhaps I should learn a lesson from the British-Irish Agreement (Amendment) Bill 2005 and today's Bill by turning my household into a limited company and challenging Cork City Council. That might provoke the Government into taking the necessary action. I will discuss such an approach with my wife when I get home later today.

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