Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)

Legislative adventurism sounds like a new minority sport and hopefully it is not an extreme sport. One reason 200,000 people are long-term unemployed - that is, they have been unemployed for approximately the same length of time as the present Government's period in office - is upward-only rent reviews. I have prepared legislation in respect of upward-only rents that is waiting to go through the system. However, when I have asked for the Attorney General's opinion on the precise reason upward-only rent reviews cannot be acted on, I have been told it is traditional and has been the practice of the Government not to disclose full details of the advice of the Attorney General. As a result, I welcome wholeheartedly the detail to which the Minister gave expression today regarding the Attorney General in respect of this issue and I hope all the other Ministers take a leaf from his book.

Sinn Féin has a valid concern in this regard, which is that the good work being done by this House or indeed the entire system could be nullified in the future. The judicial review will have regard to this legislation, probably among others. Moreover, the Oireachtas overview about which the Minister speaks will be the overview of the political party of the Minister in question. Sinn Féin does not consider this to be a brake on the decision of a future Minister and this is the reason it has concerns in this regard.

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