Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State. As we accept that the errors made must be rectified, we will support the legislation. It is important to note that we are rectifying mistakes. I wonder what is wrong with the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Gormley, and his Department in terms of their ability to assess legislation. That is what we are talking about. Only last September the Minister had to rescind two political appointments to the board of the Private Residential Tenancies Board because it was in breach of the 2004 Act. He did not even know what was contained in an Act relevant to his Department when he appointed two councillors from his own party who were prevented from joining the board because they held public office. Now we have another mistake and it seems management of the PRTB has been party to it by not being adequately familiar with the legislation. The Minister of State has mentioned that it commissioned an audit to ensure compliance but is it necessary to have audits to ensure legislation is complied with? Surely such people should know, although it would be difficult for the board to know what is contained in the legislation when the Minister did not know when he tried to appoint two councillors to the board. When he made his ill-advised appointments last September which caused inconvenience and embarrassment to the board, were procedures not changed to ensure the mistakes would not be repeated? When did the PRTB and the Minister first become aware of the problem? Have they been threatened with legal action? It is farcical that the Government and its agencies are not fully aware of the provisions of relevant legislation. This cannot continue. What is the Government considering to ensure we will not find ourselves in this position again?

The PRTB does good work. The Minister of State has indicated it has come a long way in four years but it still has a long way to go. The board was designed to make matters more expeditious but we still have long delays in processing complaints. I hope the matter will be addressed, as there have been a number of complaints from the public about the amount of time taken to process cases.

We will support the legislation, as a failure to do so would create chaos, but we require answers. The House was due to take the Bill last evening but the Minister of State received a telephone call and I wondered at that point whether another mistake had been made. Obviously, however, the technicality that arose has been checked and the position has been found to be acceptable. The events surrounding this legislation represent a comedy of errors. To err once is careless but to make a further mistake is merely incompetent.