Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The motion before us a technical one that seeks to give the Minister permission to introduce amendments to the Local Government (Rates) Bill 2018 that have nothing to do with that Bill but are related to the Residential Tenancies Act 2004, the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Act 2019 and the national spatial strategies. I do not propose to speak to the Local Government (Rates) Bill 2018 or the substance of the amendments being proposed because I can do that on Report Stage later in the week but I do want to comment on this practice. This is the third time detailed technical amendments have been introduced to legislation on Report Stage by the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government. This is not a good practice. I support some of the amendments and I do not support others but the Minister of State and I can tease out them on Report Stage tomorrow or Thursday.

There is a reason we have Committee Stage followed by Report Stage. It gives Members, including the Opposition, time to tease out with the Minister and the officials not only the intent of the legislation but the implications of it. Where a provision is allowed to pass on Committee Stage, we can discuss and reflect on it with colleagues or third parties before making a final decision on Report Stage. None of us objects to amendments being introduced on Report Stage to legislation in respect of which there is an urgency. The fact this is the third time this has happened in the case of a Department that has not had to draft that much legislation in the past two years shows it is becoming a trend. I know this is not the responsibility of the Minister of State, Deputy Phelan, or the officials who are here diligently paying attention to this discussion, because they are dealing with the Local Government (Rates) Bill 2018 but this is a real concern. For example, one of the amendments the Minister of State is seeking permission to introduce by way of this motion is an amendment to try to close a loophole to the definition of student-specific accommodation in legislation we recently dealt with. This suggests to me that officials in the Department when drafting that legislation were probably put under a significant amount of pressure from the Minister to meet the deadline for that Bill, which was substantially later in its passage through the Oireachtas than the Minister originally proposed despite the fact that it was facilitated it in a collegiate way by the Oireachtas committee. That makes me nervous because if there was a mistake, error or something not noticed under pressure in that legislation what is to say the same has not happened with some of the legislation by way of the amendment that we are dealing with today. This is not in any way a criticism of any official. I do not envy the job of the officials having to a lot of this work under extreme time pressure. The fact we will not have had the opportunity to properly consider the text of the amendments on Committee Stage is bad practice. I acknowledge the officials who attended the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government to brief it on the intent of the amendments. While it was very welcome, it is not good practice. I urge the Minister of State, Deputy Phelan, to bring back my views to the Minister, Deputy Eoghan, which, I think, are widely held views on the housing committee. I say that as somebody who supports most of the amendments the Minister of State is bringing forward.

On the technical motion before us, Sinn Féin will not oppose it. We will also facilitate the amendments but on behalf of the housing committee, I ask that it not become standard practice where with all legislation in the future, we deal with other technical details. For example, the amendment in regard to the spatial strategies was a big issue for us.

The officials provided a clear explanation but it is a very technical amendment. It is eight pages long. That is as long as some entire Bills. I do not question the intent behind it but I have less time as an Oireachtas Member to go through the technical detail and be confident in my view before I vote in favour or against it than I otherwise would. I appeal to the Minister of State not to make this standard practice. Of course we will facilitate him today as we have done before but let us not be here in a few months, if this Government is still in place, dealing with the same problems. Strictly speaking, Report Stage is for amendments to the Bill that are consequential to what we have already discussed. There is a rule that we have to raise those issues on Committee Stage so that it is all flagged in advance. I am increasingly uncomfortable with the way in which additional amendments, some of which are as long as entire Bills, come before us on Report Stage. It is not great.

See this speech in context