Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 2:

In page 8, between lines 22 and 23, to insert the following: "(8) Within six months of the passing of this Act, the Minister shall lay before the Houses of the Oireachtas a report setting out further consideration by his Department and the Department of Justice on the transfer of responsibility for the Property Services Regulatory Authority to the Department of Housing and its location within Tailte Éireann.".

I had expected the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to be here. It is probably more suitable that a Minister from the Department of Justice is here to deal with this amendment. The Bill considers three of the main bodies responsible for housing and property in the State but not the Property Services Regulatory Authority, PSRA. The placing of the latter within the Department of Justice means it is placed in a Department that is already overloaded.In the view of Sinn Féin, the PSRA should be located within the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage because it has a more natural fit with the brief of that Department. Such a change would also facilitate greater reform of the regulatory function and regulation. Indeed, this was a recommendation of the Oireachtas committee. It is within the gift of the Department of Justice to facilitate this change. Although the Minister of State will probably not accept this amendment, I encourage him to begin those discussions within his Department, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the Cabinet as a whole.