Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I believe the public floor is already there. A one-month deposit is the norm in the vast majority of cases. I am not saying we do not need to legislate for it. This brings us back to Senator Craughwell's point that there is a great deal to do around the deposit area. There is a lot we need to do to make sure tenants are not being unfairly treated from a financial perspective in a number of areas that relate to, or run alongside, the issue of what a tenant is charged upfront when he or she goes to view, secure or rent a property.

All of these things need to be considered in the context of a deposit protection scheme. If and when we bring in such a scheme, it might have ramifications for the definition of a "deposit" and all of the other things we want to define in law. I do not think it would be helpful for tenants to bring forward a definition of "deposit", even if we could work on this one for the time being, without many other things being thought through at the same time. It might tell the public something, but it is something that already exists as a norm. It is something we already share as a view. It is something we are all committed to trying to do in the future, by which I mean the fourth quarter of this year.

I have given a commitment to start the work in this House so that Senators can do the heavy lifting before it comes back to the Dáil. I understand that Deputies have put work into their amendments. We are having a very thorough debate here today. I understand that people will want to call votes. I am just concerned about time. I am concerned about getting this done. It is not about rushing it, as Senator Humphreys has said. It is about giving it the proper scrutiny. We have plenty of time to do that today. I can come in and back as many times as possible. I believe we need to look at this area as a whole. There is no time to do that between now and next Tuesday. I hope all of this legislation can be concluded on Tuesday because of the time difficulties I have spoken about, particularly as they relate to short-term letting. The sooner we make this the law, the better protected people will be.