Aideen Hayden (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Many commercial leases are held on those terms and many are not. I am well aware that there was not equality in the negotiation of many commercial leases, particularly those for shopping centres or multiple units owned and managed by large companies. However, proportionality is an issue. Senator Quinn need only look back as far as 1986 to the Madigan case on rent control to see that any retrospective provision that is arbitrary and benefits an entire class without taking into account the circumstances of the members of that class would be struck down by the courts as being unconstitutional.