Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Deputy John Curran raised it and I think Deputy Ruth Coppinger raised it as well. Deputy Jan O'Sullivan also raised concerns. A number of people raised concerns and we met those Members this morning to go through the reasoning behind the change in numbers. The point Deputy Boyd Barrett made is right. The normal person looking at this equation, given the complexity of it, will not easily understand the consequences for them. Once this legislation is passed we will need to have a proper communications process to make sure that everybody understands their rights and responsibilities and that the Residential Tenancies Board acts as it should to provide balanced, independent and fair advice to ensure that everybody understands the consequences.

With regard to the pressure my Department, the officials and the Bills Office have been under, and the Bills Office has been under a lot of pressure this week, I want to acknowledge that I am fortunate, as a Minister, to have an extraordinarily professional and committed team of people who have been working on this legislation.

It is important to say, when people are questioning the process here, that the only thing being added to this process on Report Stage is the issues that are linked to the rental strategy around rent predictability and so on. All of the other issues in the Bill have been teased out in the normal way. In fact, that started in the Seanad when it went through a process in that House. The Bill then came to the Dáil. We had Second Stage, a long Committee Stage and now Report Stage. The reason this group of amendments is being introduced on Report Stage is because my judgment was that the time between a policy decision on something as sensitive as the private rental market and actually implementing the consequences of that decision when one is choosing to intervene in the market in the way we are doing for the first time ever should be as short as possible for obvious reasons because we do not want people changing behaviour anticipating a change in policy. There is a reason we are trying to do this quickly, and I believe that reason is sound. That puts us, as legislators, under pressure in terms of the scrutiny process and also my team in terms of the amendments and the changes that are needed. However, it is important that we deliver on that pressure and get the outcome we all want at the end of today's debate.

See this speech in context