Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Amendment No. 42 seeks to remove a reference to the provision of financial assistance for open market dwellings from section 11(5). As stated under previous amendments, I wish to retain these provisions in the Bill.

Amendment No. 43 seeks to delete "comply with" and substitute "have regard to" in reference to directions issued by the Minister to housing authorities on schemes of priority under section 11. It is usual to provide that any direction issued by a Minister is complied with, where such a power is given to the Minister by statute. This is as opposed to "having regard to" which would apply, for example, to guidelines issued by a Minister. In order to provide a mechanism that will ensure that any scheme of priority is consistent with the intent of the legislation, and be fair and equitable to all households on a national basis, I do not propose to accept this amendment.