Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis na Seanadóirí. Táim lán-sásta a bheith ar ais sa Seanad inniu.

This is an important Bill, which I initiated in the Seanad. I was grateful for the co-operation of colleagues in allowing this Bill to pass the Dáil without dissent yesterday evening, following protracted discussions and debate. This legislation is about strengthening the protections for tenants which we introduced in July of this year and which took effect from 1 August. These protections have worked and are working. The Bill also deals with Covid-19 matters, planning and the issue of substitute consent, which has become acute. Ireland remains subject to fines for non-compliance with the orders of the Court of Justice of the European Union pertaining to the Derrybrien wind farm. This is the first opportunity to deal with the matter of substitute consent in line with the advice of the Attorney General so that An Bord Pleanála can move forward. It does not define An Bord Pleanála's decision. So far we have paid a lump sum of €5 million, with another €2.475 million due. If this is dealt with and wrapped up by the middle of next year, the State will probably be liable for between €12 million and €15 million. I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach for allowing me to give some context.

I will now report on group 1 of the amendments passed by the Dáil, that is, amendments Nos. 1 to 9, inclusive, and amendment No. 18. I am grateful for the opportunity to return to this House with the Planning and Development, and Residential Tenancies, Bill 2020, as amended by the Dáil. There have been several amendments to the Bill since it passed Committee Stage in the Seanad. Some are substantial in nature and some are technical.

Amendments Nos. 1 to 9, inclusive, are of a technical nature and concern changes made to the Title, definitions and citations. I will quickly explain them because it is important that the reasons for them are on the record of the House.

Amendments Nos. 1 and 2 are supplementary drafting amendments made to the preamble and the Long Title to reflect the Dáil amendments. For example, recitals have been provided to set out the policy context in which the temporary and limited restrictions on landlords' constitutionally protected property rights contained in Part 3 can be legally justified as a fair, proportionate and rational State intervention to achieve an important overriding objective for the social common good.

Amendment No. 3 provides for updates to the Short Title, citations and commencement of the Bill to reflect the insertion of urgent planning and residential tenancies amendments, some of which I brought to the House on Committee Stage. The Bill is now known as the Planning and Development, and Residential Tenancies Bill 2020. Part 3, entitled "Residential Tenancies", will commence on 11 January 2021. This must be passed this week so that those protections will automatically kick in on 11 January when the Dáil and Seanad will not be sitting.

Amendment No. 4 amends the Bill's definitions so that the new Parts 2 and 3, which amend the Planning and Development Act 2000 and the Residential Tenancies Act 2004, respectively, provide their own definitions for the purposes of those parts. The definitions, therefore, for general application to the Bill itself are as follows; "Act of 2020" means the Health (Preservation and Protection and other Emergency Measures in the Public Interest) Act 2020 and "Covid-19" has the meaning assigned to it by the Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (Covid-19) Act 2020.

Amendment No. 5 provides for an amendment to the Planning and Development Act 2000, as set out in Part 2, entitled "Planning and Development". The amendment provides that for the purposes of Part 2, the "Act of 2000" means the Planning and Development Act 2000.

Amendment No. 6 replaces a reference to the "Principal Act" in section 4 with "Act of 2000". That section amends section 11 of the Act of 2000, which concerns the holding of public meetings for the purposes of proposed development plans.

Amendments Nos. 7 and 8 are technical drafting amendments to reflect amendment No. 4, which provides the definitions of the "Act of 2020" as Health (Preservation and Protection and other Emergency Measures in the Public Interest) Act 2020 and "Covid-19" as the meaning assigned to it by the Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (Covid-19) Act 2020 and is of general applicability to the Bill itself. The definitions in section 4 as passed on Committee Stage are now superfluous as a result of amendment No. 4 and are to be deleted.

Amendment No. 9 is supplementary to amendment No. 5, and replaces a previous reference to the "Principal Act" with "Act of 2000".

Amendment No. 18 inserts a new section 13 to provide for necessary technical amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act 2004 which are consequential to the introduction of Part 3 of the Bill.