Results 3,321-3,340 of 16,849 for speaker:Dermot Ahern

Seanad: Property Services (Regulation) Bill 2009: Committee Stage. (21 Apr 2010)

Dermot Ahern: This is merely a drafting amendment. Amendment agreed to. Section 29, as amended, agreed to. SECTION 30.

Seanad: Property Services (Regulation) Bill 2009: Committee Stage. (21 Apr 2010)

Dermot Ahern: These amendments clarify that the requirement to submit an accountant's certificate with an application for a licence or for renewal of a licence applies to property service employers and independent contractors only. The requirement will not apply to applications from individual employees. Amendment agreed to.

Seanad: Property Services (Regulation) Bill 2009: Committee Stage. (21 Apr 2010)

Dermot Ahern: Amendment No. 31 inserts a new subsection in section 30 to provide that where a partner in a partnership applies for a licence as an independent contractor, the application will be refused if any of the other partners is under 18 years of age or is an undischarged bankrupt or if the partnership does not comply with any of the requirements of the Bill. Amendment No. 30 is a consequential...

Seanad: Property Services (Regulation) Bill 2009: Committee Stage. (21 Apr 2010)

Dermot Ahern: These are technical amendments. Amendment No. 33 inserts a new subsection which provides the requirement to refuse to issue a licence to a partner in a partnership, if any other principal officer of the partnership is not a fit or proper person, only applies where a partner applies for a licence as a property service employer and not as an independent contractor. The other amendments are...

Seanad: Property Services (Regulation) Bill 2009: Committee Stage. (21 Apr 2010)

Dermot Ahern: Section 35(3) provides that where a decision on the application for a renewal of a licence has not been made by the authority before the expiry of the licensee's licence, the existing licence will continue in force until such a decision is made. The amendment clarifies that when a new licence is issued, its duration will run from the date on which the previous licence was due to expire and...

Seanad: Property Services (Regulation) Bill 2009: Committee Stage. (21 Apr 2010)

Dermot Ahern: I understand the idea of encouraging compliance with codes of practice but, again, Senator Bacik has missed the point. A code of practice is in place for guidance, not as a list of statutory requirements. It is in place to give guidance so as to ensure the statutory requirements are not infringed. It comes back to the Senator's amendment No. 27 concerning failure to comply with a code of...

Seanad: Property Services (Regulation) Bill 2009: Committee Stage. (21 Apr 2010)

Dermot Ahern: We can examine it on Report Stage.

Seanad: Property Services (Regulation) Bill 2009: Committee Stage. (21 Apr 2010)

Dermot Ahern: These are drafting amendments which clarify that if a licensee is an adjudicated bankrupt, then all licences will be suspended until they expire or the adjudication is annulled.

Seanad: Property Services (Regulation) Bill 2009: Committee Stage. (21 Apr 2010)

Dermot Ahern: Section 41 requires licensees to notify the authority of any conviction for an offence or any proceedings pending. Amendment No. 44 will exclude offences prescribed by the authority from this requirement. Amendment No. 67 will limit the power of the authority to prescribe offences for the purposes of section 41. It can only exclude offences which are not relevant to the provisions of a...

Seanad: Property Services (Regulation) Bill 2009: Committee Stage. (21 Apr 2010)

Dermot Ahern: These amendments extend the period within which a licensee must furnish a letter of engagement or an amended letter of engagement to a client from three to seven working days. They respond to concerns raised by representatives of the property services industry that a requirement to issue a letter of engagement within three working days was too short.

Seanad: Property Services (Regulation) Bill 2009: Committee Stage. (21 Apr 2010)

Dermot Ahern: These amendments clarify that the requirement to issue a letter of engagement also applies to an amendment or a renewal of an existing property services agreement or to a re-engagement of a licensee following expiry of the property services agreement.

Seanad: Property Services (Regulation) Bill 2009: Committee Stage. (21 Apr 2010)

Dermot Ahern: The purpose of these amendments is to clarify that the requirements to keep records set out in sections 44 and 59 apply to property service employers and independent contractors, not to individual employees or principal officers. The amendments also make it clear that the employer will be required to keep the records in respect of property services provided by employees or principal officers.

Seanad: Property Services (Regulation) Bill 2009: Committee Stage. (21 Apr 2010)

Dermot Ahern: These are drafting amendments. I am consulting the Courts Service and the Office of the Attorney General on whether the Bill should provide that certain applications to the Circuit Court and the High Court in the first instance should be made in a summary manner. Depending on the outcome of these consultations, I will bring forward further amendments to this and other sections of the Bill,...

Seanad: Property Services (Regulation) Bill 2009: Committee Stage. (21 Apr 2010)

Dermot Ahern: This is a drafting amendment.

Seanad: Property Services (Regulation) Bill 2009: Committee Stage. (21 Apr 2010)

Dermot Ahern: The renewed programme for Government contains a commitment to the publication of property prices, but it a complex issue. The Senator is correct regarding some of the issues to do with data protection and also the compilation of data, but we are in discussions with the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government on the matter. It is a question of finding the proper vehicle....

Seanad: Property Services (Regulation) Bill 2009: Committee Stage. (21 Apr 2010)

Dermot Ahern: There is a suggestion that it would offend data protection provisions, but knowing the Labour Party, it will be more than willing to allow us to amend the relevant data protection legislation to facilitate the provision of full information for the general public than it allows.

Seanad: Property Services (Regulation) Bill 2009: Committee Stage. (21 Apr 2010)

Dermot Ahern: When it suits.

Seanad: Property Services (Regulation) Bill 2009: Committee Stage. (21 Apr 2010)

Dermot Ahern: No, it has not. It is more practical.

Seanad: Property Services (Regulation) Bill 2009: Committee Stage. (21 Apr 2010)

Dermot Ahern: Senator Bacik should take it from a practitioner. I have good experience in it.

Seanad: Property Services (Regulation) Bill 2009: Committee Stage. (21 Apr 2010)

Dermot Ahern: I will go down in history as being the only Minister on whom the Data Protection Commissioner served a 20-day notice because I was giving too much information under freedom of information legislation in my Department. The media and the Labour Party never highlight that. When I was Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources I provided too much information on freedom of...