Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Leader's announcement about tomorrow's business is unfortunate but it is most unusual that we would have to do this and it is important not to rush into taking Report Stage of the Companies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2013 given the extensive amendments announced by the Minister yesterday and the views expressed on Committee Stage last night. There is a positive reason for this. We should not rush prematurely into Report Stage.

Yesterday on the Order of Business I welcomed the fact that President Michael D. Higgins will make an official visit to Britain next year. It is great to see that this is finally happening. It is extraordinary on one level that it has not happened before now. The President spoke at the Hist. in Trinity last night and pointed out just how significant this visit will be for Anglo-Irish relations and the peace process.

Could we have a debate in the new year, perhaps around the time that the President makes this visit, about the ongoing difficulties in the peace process? I am particularly concerned about the proposition made by the Northern Ireland Attorney General, John Larkin, that there should be no further inquiries or inquests into murders that occurred before the conclusion of the Good Friday Agreement. The Tánaiste disagreed this morning with that proposition. It highlights the issues that recur in the peace process which is not by any means a smooth process. We need to review it and to consider the obstacles and difficulties that arise.

I congratulate my Labour Party colleague, Senator Hayden who will launch the annual report of Threshold, the housing organisation, today. Senator Hayden does Trojan work as chairperson of Threshold. She has made a very important call for a much more rigorous certification process for the private rental market to ensure that local authorities would certify private rented accommodation and that people would no longer have to live in sub-standard accommodation. Will the Leader invite the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, into the House to debate that and the private rental sector generally, and how best to regulate it, in the interests of protecting tenants rights?