I move amendment No. 45: In page 11, between lines 11 and 12, to insert the following: "Report 7. The Minister shall, within three years of the passing of this Act, lay a report before both Houses of the Oireachtas outlining a sectoral analysis with respect to the information published under section 2 and further recommendations based upon such analysis in terms of reducing the gender pay gap.".

I move amendment No. 46: In page 11, to delete lines 19 to 22 and substitute the following: "(1) This Act shall come into operation three months after it has been passed by both Houses of the Oireachtas or a prior date which the Minister may appoint by order.".

The Minister indicated his wish for speedy passage and implementation of the Bill. In that context, I am happy to withdraw the amendment.

I move amendment No. 1: In page 8, line 3, after “sale” to insert the following: “, which for the avoidance of doubt, is a dwelling for which no contribution shall be required from a local authority or State body”.

I will be withdrawing amendment No. 1. It is one of my previous drafts from Committee Stage. My preference is to focus on amendments Nos. 10 and 11. This relates to a key concern I have. It was one of the last points we discussed before the Bill was guillotined on Committee Stage. My concern is that the Bill, as drafted, could be construed as suggesting, in respect of Part 5 affordable housing, that the affordable housing contribution could be financial. I know that is not the policy intent. We had a discussion on …

I thank the Minister for walking us through the different elements of the matter. While the contribution is to the purchaser, under section 12(2), it is still defined as an amount. I realise that the later section on affordable housing and equity share makes it clear that the key use of that amount will be for calculating the share but it might be useful, in a belt and braces approach, to make it clear, within either the definition or section 12(2) that it is a contribution. Section 12 phrases it as the purchase of…

I move amendment No. 2: In page 8, line 16, after “arrangements” to insert “, public-public partnership and not-for-profit arrangements”.

With amendment No. 2, I am suggesting that we include public-public partnerships in the different kinds of arrangements that might be made. These may be partnerships between a housing authority and a State body or another public body, or, in some cases, they may be partnerships between different public bodies such as two local authorities or housing authorities developing something in co-operation. Some of this issue has been addressed by Senator Warfield's amendment on co-operatives and so on, which was accepted b…

I thank the Minister. I will watch the Dáil with interest. As the State rebuilds its housing capacity and knowledge, one of the public partners used may be a housing authority. The Minister mentioned partners. Many of the partners we have discussed have housing as their main focus and they will become partners for a housing authority or something else. However, there is scope through a public-public partnership arrangement for partnerships between bodies that are directly involved in housing and, as Senator Craughw…

I thank the Minister. I will be happy to withdraw the amendment in this context.

The case has been put very eloquently by Senator Boyhan and, indeed, by everybody. This was probably one of the points of greatest agreement right across the House and everybody supported it. In that regard, it is worth noting that a number of amendments, including some of mine, were withdrawn on the understanding and in the expectation that this amendment from Senator Fitzpatrick would be brought forward. During the course of the debate on the matter, I recall, in the context of some of my amendments, yielding on …

On a point of order, votes are not obstruction. That is important.

I move amendment No. 4: In page 8, between lines 35 and 36, to insert the following: “(7) In performing functions under subsection (1), housing authorities shall have regard to the appropriateness of the location of dwellings in respect of facilitating access to public transport, education services, health services, public amenities and intergenerationally accessible public spaces.”.

Amendment No. 4 refers to the setting of initiatives in respect of affordable housing and creating arrangements. When we discussed this Bill on Committee Stage one of the points was that many of these pieces of knowledge are what local authorities can put into the mix. The amendment seeks to create an explicit link in terms of housing or local authorities bringing that to bear, thus ensuring we have affordable housing initiatives that are located near playgrounds and routes to hospitals and facilitate the public tr…

I appreciate that this is good practice, that it is what should happen and that it is what often, although not always, happens. Bearing in mind that there are a number of routes to the provision of affordable housing, I do not have the same confidence in all of them because not all of that housing will be new build. Some of it will be repurposed and some of it will be done under Part V. I do not have full confidence that all of these factors are always in the mix. We saw all of those good elements in the planning p…

I just wanted to respond but as I have responded already, that is okay.

I move amendment No. 5: In page 9, between lines 15 and 16, to insert the following: “(3) Notwithstanding any national regulations which may be set out, a housing authority may specify such additional criteria in respect of the determination of affordability as it believes appropriate and is necessary for the delivery of social and affordable housing within that local authority’s area before entering into an agreement under subsection (2).”.

I move amendment No. 6: In page 9, after line 39, to insert the following: “(c) shall require that the dwelling specified meets any criteria for affordability as set out by the Minister or the relevant housing authority, and in setting out such criteria the Minister shall have regard to the median national income.”.

I move amendment No. 7: In page 10, between lines 28 and 29, to insert the following: “(2) The purchase of such open market dwellings may constitute no more than 15 per cent of the affordable housing purchase supported by a housing authority in any given year.”. We had lengthy discussions on open market dwellings on Committee Stage and as to the question of their inclusion, but I do not intend to rehash that. A strong case was made by Senator Casey and others that there could be situations where there is not an ava…

I agree that we should use all the tools in our armoury. That is why I have not sought to prohibit open market dwellings. The Minister is saying that the vast majority will be provided through these other means but there is nothing in the legislation to say that this will be the case. I will be frank. What I do not want is for local authorities to be delivering 40%, 50% or 60% of houses through the open market. This is not an ideological issue or me saying I do not like the market. I have no problem with the market…