Maire Devine (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the passage of the Bill. I also congratulate Senator Gallagher. It is tough getting legislation through, but when one gets to the final curtain it fells really good because one is doing something worthwhile. I acknowledge the work of my colleague, Deputy Ó Caoláin, which Senator Gallagher also acknowledged. Deputy Ó Caoláin has sought to address this issue over many years. In his role as Chairman of the Select Committee on Justice and Equality, he recently facilitated the Bill's passage through Committee Stage. I welcome the delegation from Carrickmacross. They have been to the fore of our thinking and consideration on the Bill. I say "Well done" to all of them. I will not remember all their names but Senator Gallagher has read them into the record so they will be there.

While it was great to see such cross-party consensus delivering results in a timely manner, we must not think the issue of ground rents has been resolved or gone away. The legislation addresses an anomaly that seems most evident in Carrickmacross but I acknowledge there are other similar places, perhaps as yet undiscovered, throughout the country. My stance is that ground rents should be confined to the history books. They stick in the craw. It is time for them to go. There have many been appeals to protect precious property and the Constitution, but it is time for us to make this change. Everyone throughout the country has a similar feeling on paying ground rent to landlords. To the best of my knowledge, the State pays a landlord ground rent associated with Iveagh House. It is a little ironic that the conducting of one's own external affairs, which is a benchmark of sovereignty, is dependent on payments to figures associated with our past. This represents an odious hangover from colonialism. Perhaps the Minister will focus on that at some point, but not today. I do not want to pay my own ground rent. Many people have come to me to discuss this issue, but the hands are put up and it is said there is no remedy in the Constitution and that this cannot be stopped. We have matured, however. This is a republic, so let us try to act like it is.