Mary O'Rourke (Fianna Fail)

——referred to the commission on auctioneering and to plans by auctioneers to increase their fees because the price of houses has plateaued, despite the fact that their fees did not decrease while prices were rising. I found the auctioneers' claims to be humorous, although a Mr. Alan Cooke, who appeared on the radio at lunchtime yesterday, tried unsuccessfully to make sense of the issue. With regard to the auctioneer who was fined €300,000 for inaccurately describing the size of a building, pointing to the small print did not do any good in terms of avoiding penalties. I wish Senator Ross well in his auctioneering career.