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

No one is talking about introducing a fee overnight. The RTB offers free mediation services and we want them to continue. This is about the change management programme that is under way within the RTB to move it from being a board to a regulator and providing for all of the aspects that might be need to be addressed at some point in the future without the need to have to come back to the Houses to make legislative changes. If a mediation service fee was to be introduced at any point in the future, it would, of course, require further scrutiny because it would be quite a change for the RTB to make. The provision has regard to what we are trying to do in the rental sector. We are trying not just to increase supply and change the law for renters and landlords alike but also to have a more robust independent regulator. We are not sure what mediation services might be necessary in the future or how they might be structured, given some of the changes that are happening in the rental sector and what they might mean in terms of the burden on the RTB. The provision may never be used, but if it were to be used, it would require greater scrutiny by this House and the public. It is, however, considered prudent to include it in the legislation.