Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I said to Deputy Rabbitte that the heads of the property services regulatory authority Bill were published before Christmas. The Bill will be responsible for auctioneers, estate agencies and management agencies. That is precisely the issue that the Deputy raised today. The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform set up a working group on the regulation of auctioneers. I understand that was a public group and the Labour Party made no submission to it. Under current competition rules, auctioneers are not allowed to fix fees, so it is not the case that they can do anything, as the eminent Member of the Upper House suggested. I thought Senator Ross was in another profession, but maybe he is an auctioneer as well. Auctioneers usually arrange fees in agreement with the public, but under competition rules they are not allowed to fix fees. If Deputy Rabbitte thinks they are involved in that, they are breaking competition rules.

It is inevitable that things move up and down as market forces come into play. If the houses are not being sold, auctioneers will not have the staff. We have proposed legislation and we have published the heads of a Bill that is responsible for auctioneers and agents. The working group of the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform will examine and regulate auctioneers and it is still in operation. Under competition rules, they are not allowed to fix fees.

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