Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Last night, Deputy Curran sought clarification on how subsections (3)(a) and (4) will be applied. The section in which the latter are to be found deals with the actual criteria. We said earlier in the week that those criteria are too limited but we were informed that there was no way they could be changed. It turns out, however, that the subsection actually means that tenants can be charged more than the Minister actually indicated on Tuesday. He responded last night by saying that this was a drafting error and sought time to correct it. A recommittal of the Bill was recommended by my colleagues in order to allow him to make the changes in respect of said error. I would like to believe the Minister - and I have to believe him - but he must understand that one could genuinely be forgiven in finding it difficult to accept that this was just a drafting error. While those on this side of the House and all other Deputies were given the Bill late on Tuesday evening, the Minister and his staff have been working on it for the past few weeks. It could be said, from my perspective, that the Minister was inflexible in terms of taking any amendments from Fianna Fáil on the criteria he has set and which we believe may prove to be too restrictive. We are, however, prepared to wait to allow the further review to which the Minister has committed to take place by June.

The Minister had indicated that it was not procedurally possible to move amendments on the rate or the restrictive criteria. On foot of the drafting error, the procedures have now been changed. The Minister said that he had intensive talks with his own officials and those from the Departments of Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform prior to the Bill being produced. He would also have had access to the Office of the Attorney General and the Office of the Parliamentary Legal Adviser. He must accept and acknowledge that it is exceptionally difficult not to believe that it was an intentional error or, at the very least, an earlier intention to charge tenants more. As other Deputies said last night, it is not just simply a typo. We are not talking about a comma or an apostrophe.

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