Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This just goes to show the level of reduction on Grafton Street and how the market was affected. This was two years ago and I do not suggest a similar reduction would obtain now, as the position obviously has changed again and rents are moving upwards at present.

On the question of introducing legislation and making it retrospective, I have noted a number of times that back in 2004, I was involved in an issue concerning nursing homes. It was a case in which no legislation was in place that provided for the deduction of 80% of people's pensions to pay for nursing home charges. A colleague of mine took that issue to the High Court, which ruled that we had not given the health board sufficient time to deal with the issue raised and suggested that we return in six weeks or two months' time. The then Minister, Mary Harney, rushed through legislation to try to make the charges retrospective. In other words, an attempt was made to state these charges, which had been made over the previous ten or 15 years, were in fact lawful. That Bill went through both Houses of Oireachtas in three days but the then President rightly referred it to the Supreme Court. In February 2005, the Supreme Court held that one cannot make legislation retrospective and duly decided the legislation was unconstitutional.

This then raises the same issue in respect of the Bill before Members, namely, can one make something retrospective? Can one apply a new set of rules to something that was done prior to the passage of the legislation? This is my concern and I agree with the advice that has been given to the Government. While I may be wrong, I believe there is a difficulty in this regard without a constitutional change. In fairness to the previous Government, it considered this issue when it brought forward the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act 2009, section 132 of which provided that future leases cannot have upward only rents. This was the right decision and the unfortunate problem is that it should have been done a long time ago.

In respect of NAMA, it is important to bring information concerning the figures for 2012 to the attention of the House. There were 276 eligible applications for a rent review in which people sought reductions in rent. An abatement of rent was granted by NAMA in 212 of these applications, which means NAMA now is collecting €13.5 million less in rent and that the agency has dealt with this issue. The figures I have to hand are from March 2013, when there still were 56 cases under review. However, in only eight cases of the 276 applications was the rent not reduced. In fairness, NAMA is dealing with this issue in a proper way.

Finally, I refer the effects of rents and how people are talking about businesses closing because of rent issues. However, other issues also affect small businesses and a large part of the problem concerns cash flow. It is not simply about rent, as commercial rates also are an issue. They have not fallen in real terms to any great extent, even though the volume of business with which people are dealing inside urban centres has reduced dramatically. Neither the Oireachtas nor local authorities have brought down commercial rates to any great extent and they are a major cost levied on small businesses.

Another issue that has not been dealt with is the manner in which planning permission has been granted. Many units are lying idle around the country and will remain so because there is enough retail space in Ireland to provide for a population of more than 11 million people.