Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail)

I thank Senator Butler for sharing time. I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Curran. I am glad the Property Services (Regulation) Bill 2009 has been published and brought to the House. I will make some brief points on it. At the outset, I would like to declare an interest. I am a licensed and practising auctioneer. I wholeheartedly welcome this long overdue attempt to regulate the property services market. In recent years, Senator Ross has consistently argued that such regulation is needed. As a relatively recent entrant to the market, I have observed the need for this legislation over the past few years. If nothing else, it will protect the many auctioneers who go about their business in an appropriate fashion. I accept that there have been many abuses and I am glad that this legislation includes a variety of measures to deal with that. I am sure many improvements to the Bill, which is to be welcomed in general, will be suggested on Committee Stage.

In recent months, I received an anonymous e-mail from someone who thought I would be happy to learn that a survey had found that the two least popular, or least trusted, professions in the world were politics and auctioneering, in that order. I am unlucky enough, or perhaps lucky enough, to be involved in both professions. Legislation of this nature is long overdue. It is needed to improve the industry, which has faced many difficulties in recent years. While it will be particularly helpful from the point of view of consumers, it will also assist the many auctioneers who go about their business in an appropriate, legal and honourable fashion.

The property services authority, which has been established on a non-statutory basis, has already issued a code of practice. I am glad to report that many auctioneers are already following that code. I look forward to seeing the authority make further improvements to the code so that the level of compliance of auctioneers can be further enhanced. The auctioneering profession needs to enhance the service it provides in a way that gives the public confidence. I reiterate that auctioneers want to go about their business and make a living while providing a service they can stand over. They want to be sure they are being true to the wishes of consumers. There are several issues to discuss when we get the opportunity to go through the Bill section by section. At a glance I noticed in section 2 the definition:

"relevant price range", in relation to land valued for sale or letting by a licensee, means a price range where the difference between the upper limit of such valuation and the lower limit of such valuation is not more than 10 per cent of such lower limit;

Any valuer would set out to achieve that and even much less than a 10% variance. In the current market, however, we might have to reconsider the 10% limit because it is not an exact science at any time and especially not at the moment. This will be one of the major difficulties for the National Asset Management Agency, NAMA, to get an accurate valuation. It may be a little too prescriptive given the volatility or non-existence of a property market.

I fully agree with, and support the establishment of, the compensation fund. The hope is to build it up to €5 million. I do not know whether that is necessary as €2 million or €3 million may suffice in the interim, to be reviewed every couple of years. There are other improvements we can make.

More than anything else, however, I hope this legislation will provide the appropriate safeguards to bring back a level of public confidence in the auctioneering profession which is an honourable one. There have been abuses and bad eggs and we need to root them out. This legislation represents a good start in that process. I wholeheartedly welcome it and look forward to making a few more recommendations on Committee Stage.