Brian Hayes (Fine Gael)

If we are really serious about it, we should abolish the practice rather than have a two-year hiatus, about which the Minister of State seems to be blissfully happy, as the world moves on and more people are scammed. The Irish housing market, unfortunately, is riddled with scamming in a whole range of areas. One of them is the explosion of management companies. Many young couples and individuals now have to pick up the bill on a yearly basis for essential services which local authorities provided for years.

The job of Seanad Éireann is to get agreement on legislation such as this, which has the support of all sides of the House. It is not the Government's job to stop it. I regret that the Government has chosen on the second occasion in two years to stop this pro-consumer legislation, which could introduce guarantees into the housing market for a part of this country where this scam has existed for far too long.