I support both these amendments and I will add one additional point. We still have some anomalies because rent pressure zones are calculated on the basis of local electoral areas, LEAs, and data provided to the Minister by the Residential Tenancies Board. In a certain number of locations, such as Cork city and county, half an LEA is subject to very substantial rent increases and the other half is not and in many cases one half does not have much rental stock because it is more rural or county based. As a result, th…

I wish to speak to amendment No. 22. Section 5 contains a real deceit. I am choosing my words very carefully. For several weeks, the Minister has been on the airwaves telling people that this legislation will introduce tenancies of unlimited duration. The Minister of State used the same phrase on Second Stage last week. A tenancy of "unlimited" or "indefinite" duration has a clear meaning. It means that if I sign a contract as a tenant and then abide by its terms to pay my rent, keep the property in good order and …

I support both Deputy Pringle's amendments, as well as his comments and those of Deputies McAuliffe, Matthews and Boyd Barrett. Many of us have been arguing for quite some time that the earlier you involve third parties in any planning process, the better outcomes we get for everybody. However, I wish to put on record a slightly different view to a number of the comments. I absolutely welcome the return to a two-stage process. The core of this Bill is a good proposition and many of us argued for it when we opposed …

It was 25 storeys.

I do not know whether the Minister is deliberately misrepresenting the intention behind this amendment or just does not understand it.

Nobody on this side of the House is arguing against consistency or the right of the Government to frame policy. The specific problem with the section 28 mandatory ministerial guidelines is that they enable the Minister to institute profound changes to planning law without a single vote being taken in this House. That is the problem. As a direct result of the two sets of section 28 mandatory ministerial guidelines the Minister's predecessor introduced, we have had a perpetual series of conflicts at the High Court, o…

I move: That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to provide for the automatic extension of notice periods with respect to residential tenancies where a tenant is certified as at risk of homelessness and for that purpose to amend the Residential Tenancies Act 2004 and to provide for related matters. As the House knows, homelessness among adults and children has increased in each of the past four months. That increase is directly related to the dramatic rise in notices to quit issued since the Govern…

I move: "That the Bill be taken in Private Members' time."

I congratulate my colleague, Deputy Paul Donnelly, on bringing forth this important motion. Like others, and as all Deputies who contribute to the debate this evening probably will do, I pay tribute to the men and women of the Dublin Fire Brigade, our firefighters, ambulance staff and paramedics. I do not think there is a Member of this House who, either directly from family experience or as a constituency politician, has not had interaction with the fire service at the front line of its work. This is not a normal …

As the Minister of State knows, I like to think of myself as a very reasonable person and as somebody who will genuinely listen to the arguments the Government puts forward for the various measures it introduces. When it does something right, I will support it, when it does something poor, I will not oppose it, but I will highlight the inadequacies, and then, on many occasions, when I believe the Government is doing the wrong thing, I will oppose it. I know this is the season of goodwill but any renter watching the…

The Deputy is completely misrepresenting what I said.

Deputy Kehoe should be honest in representing what I said.

That is simply not the case.

House prices, as the Tánaiste knows, are out of control and homeownership continues to be in decline. He and his partners have been in government for ten years and during that period, house prices have increased by 42%. In Dublin city the increase is a shocking 88%. Thanks to Fine Gael housing policy it is now more difficult to buy a home than ever before. Fine Gael claims to the be the party of homeownership and to represent people who get up early in the morning to go to work. However, under its watch fewer worki…

I thank the Tánaiste. What he does not seem to understand is the KPMG report is based on this Government meeting the targets outlined in its recent housing plan. What the report, which is based on the most up-to-date information from the CSO and ESRI and all the Government's target projections for social, affordable and private housing, is saying very clearly to the Government is that even if all that happens house prices are still going to increase by 25%. I appreciate it is not the Tánaiste's portfolio but I am g…

Do not tempt fate.

The programme for Government committed to examining the issue of latent building defects within the first year. A working group was set up and the expectation was that it would report to the Government in June of this year. Unfortunately, that deadline has been missed. As a consequence, tens of thousands of homeowners across the State will tonight sleep in homes with significant fire safety and other structural defects. In many cases, they face bills of between €15,000 and €60,000 to fix problems they did not cause…

The strategic housing developments were probably one of the worst changes to our planning regime for many decades. It is not the only bad change made by the previous Government and other Deputies have correctly identified the section 28 mandatory ministerial guidelines and there are also key aspects of the national planning framework that are continuing to cause us significant problems. I welcome this Bill, although there are elements the Minister should still consider changing. It is worth reflecting on the passag…

I wish to speak to amendment No. 2. This is a very welcome amendment, as I am sure the Minister of State's briefing note tells him. Opposition members of the committee were arguing very strongly that the marine planning policy statement should have the formal approval of the Dáil. The amendment provides for that. This is similar to the maritime area plan and the planning framework. A similar procedure should also have been used and we argued for this on Committee Stage with respect to the ministerial guidelines and…

I am appreciative of the fact that this amendment has been tabled, but the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, did not answer the specific question. We argued on Committee Stage that a similar provision should be made available with respect to ministerial guidelines and policy directives. Is there a reason that was not considered? Given the significance of the policy directives and ministerial guidelines - the concept of guidelines being a little bit of a misnomer given they have the weight of law - surely some mecha…