Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

We have already got the heads of the Bill in place. In terms of the matter raised by Deputy Rabbitte, it is the seller who pays the auctioneer, not the buyer. For once I agree with him that there is no argument whatsoever to be made or any justifiable case for auctioneers to have any increase, having worked on the basis of 30,000 to 35,000 a year, while they are now selling in the range of 94,000 and that figure might drop to 88,000. There is a process involving the Competition Authority where one can get an auctioneer's licence. It may be a bit cumbersome, but it must be regulated. The only way to deal with it is by having more competition.

Deputy Rabbitte asked me why I would condone this sort of thing. We are not condoning it. The heads of the property services regulatory authority Bill went before the Government before Christmas. This Bill will license and regulate management agents, who are the source of these problems. That will hopefully help the costs.

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