John Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will be interested to hear what the Minister of State says. The points Senator Higgins has made are valid.The protection of the core price, the initial part, is not necessarily in the amendment being proposed, which is a flaw. Perhaps we can take account of what has been said in this Chamber, and that when this Bill is debated in the Dáil we ensure we protect the original core set-price rent, because that is the cost of building, maintaining and financing. Those costs are set and we cannot go below that for fear of making the model unviable. The amendments, as proposed, mean that one could potentially go below that. I know that is not the intention of what the Senator said in her contribution. I accept the points made but as the amendments are framed currently, they are problematic. I ask the Minister of State to take that on board.