James Bannon (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)

When speaking in the Seanad on the Residential Tenancies Bill 2003, I pointed out that the Bill contained 11 additional pages that had not been debated in the Dáil and that it was imperative we prevented it being rushed through or being merely rubber-stamped by the House. The guillotine of the Dáil Report Stage led to 37 Government amendments being passed without debate, many of which were substantial and involved considerable additions to the Bill as originally introduced.

I had hoped that the Bill, when completed, would be well structured, watertight legislation, encompassing rights and responsibilities for tenants and landlords, that would revitalise the private rental sector. However, it seems the maxim that rushed legislation is bad legislation holds true in respect of this and many other Bills rushed through both Houses by this Government.

So flawed is the Residential Tenancies Act 2004 that neither the Minister of State nor his Department was able to interpret its provisions, or so he would have us believe. Five years later, the product of that rushed legislation has brought us back to debate loopholes that could potentially lead to more than 100 decisions being open to legal challenge or having to be set aside by the board. It would be a shameful misuse of resources if the PRTB were required to visit the tribunal cases in questions. Equally, it would be shameful if any hint of a cover-up were to attach to this legislation.

It now appears that rushing through of what became the Residential Tenancies Act 2004 left grey areas which have led to problems of invalid appointments to the Private Residential Tenancies Board. This could lead to massive legal challenges that would impact adversely on the work of the board. As I said earlier, the Residential Tenancies Bill 2003 was rushed legislation which stands as a testament to Government mismanagement. We are now forced to debate all Stages of this Bill today.

This is worrying; it is history repeating itself with the Government rushing all Stages of the Bill through this House by way of last minute changes to the Dáil schedule. This is outrageous given there were six weeks recess time during which the schedule could have been finalised, thus providing Members with adequate prior notice of this legislation. To add insult to injury, copies of the Bill were only made available to us this afternoon. The feeling of whitewash and cover-up persists.

See this speech in context