John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the Report Stage debate on this Bill. I want to put it on the record, in case there is any misunderstanding, that I did not have sight of the contents of these proposals in advance of their publication last Tuesday. Obviously, I heard media reports, etc., but I saw the housing proposals for the first time on Tuesday afternoon. It is almost six months to the day since the Committee on Housing on Homelessness launched its report on 17 June. That report identified the need for a strategy for the rental sector. The Minister launched his own report, Rebuilding Ireland, approximately a month later. That report also identified the need for a strategy for the rental sector. I welcomed the achievement of that objective when this week's report was published.

The first thing that struck me this week when I reflected on the matter was that it took longer to produce the report on the rental sector than it did to produce the Minister's initial housing report, which was published well inside the first 100 days of this Administration. In my view, the wait from the publication of the Minister's first housing report to the launch of the rental strategy this week was too long. I want to focus on that delay because the task that has been given to Members on all sides of the House this evening is not an easy one. It is not easy precisely because of the time delay in producing the rental strategy. Deputy Coppinger is right when she says it is quite complex to deal with an array of amendments to various sections of the Bill that are being dealt with together.

Those who have listened to many of the contributions would probably say that they are more like Second Stage speeches.

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