That is disappointing, when taken in conjunction with the climate justice amendment we tried to insert. Those amendments are not intended to be the meat of the Bill but to set the parameters within which we will deliver the targets in the Bill. I am disappointed to hear the Minister say this is not a manifesto for everything we want to include in it and that this is a way of ensuring we hit our targets as part of the sustainable development goals. They do not work in isolation, but in conjunction with one another. …

I move amendment No. 10: In page 7, between lines 31 and 32, to insert the following: “(e) by the insertion of the following subsection: “(2) The references in section 4(11), section 5(8) and section 6B(13) to a Minister of the Government shall each be construed as including a reference to the Government.”.”. This is a technical amendment but it is also a fundamental one. Senator Higgins will speak to it in more detail. It arises on foot of a judgment relating to Safety Before LNG and clears up the technical distin…

There is nothing I can say to that. It is disappointing. I will push the matter to a vote.

I welcome the Minister of State to the House again. He must be sick of looking at us. Between the Minister and all the Ministers of State with responsibility for the housing sector, he has been in the House a great deal as we approach the end of term. I am supportive, in principle, of the Land Development Agency Bill before the Seanad. The Bill was initiated in the Dáil but, in practice, the Government did not accept amendments to the Bill from the Opposition on Committee Stage and was not prepared to work with us …

I welcome the Government decision last week to allow people aged between 18 and 34 to avail of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson or Janssen vaccine from today in pharmacies. It is a development that is greatly welcomed in the roll-out of the vaccine programme. I compliment Senator Chambers on her work last week in opposing a two-tier reopening for younger people and, in particular, hospitality workers. I have no problem with having a two-tier reopening if people refuse to take a vaccine but it is unfair to put people …

We are not. We will withdraw it to resubmit on Report Stage.

I was not going to contribute on these amendments but I wish to speak on the amendment related to the Aarhus Convention. It could be argued that even though we have signed up to the Aarhus Convention, it does not need to be included in this Bill. Colm Keena wrote an interesting article in The Irish Times about access to judicial reviews and how the Government is looking at limiting access to judicial review through the courts, particularly in the area of environmental planning and legislation. This is an important …

A number of amendments I have tabled are effectively ruled out. I do not want to press them because of what the Minister is doing in his own amendments. We should probably go through them. I am going to withdraw some of mine.

We should proceed in that way rather than move each of them.

I am getting a little bit confused as to how this is working. Are we going through our individual amendments to move them, as per Committee Stage, or are we-----

Okay. So, we are not speaking to everything.

Okay, yes.

I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach.

We have a number of amendments seeking to extend the protections to 2023, which effectively brings in a short-term rent freeze for people who have registered. The Minister has moved significantly, however, in terms of bringing rent increases in line with inflation and the consumer price index. He is making a very welcome move on behalf of renters. I am going to withdraw my amendments. I ask the Minister to bear in mind trying to get a mechanism for a rent freeze for people who are in financial difficulty. I am awar…

I move amendment No. 11: In page 5, to delete lines 10 and 11 and substitute the following: "(b) a deposit (howsoever described and being an amount of money to be held by the landlord only as security for the performance of any obligations, and the discharge of any liabilities, of the tenant under or in connection with the tenancy) of an amount no greater than that payable under the tenancy agreement as rent in respect of a period of one month.". I will speak to this but I will not push it to a vote. This limits re…

No, I am not.

I was not expecting this. It feels more like a wedding than the passing of a Bill. I am just getting used to it. The move by the Government to link rents to the consumer price index is progressive, long overdue and welcome. I also see that institutional property investors kicked up about the issue. Taking this action in the face of lobbying from people on the outside, particularly landlords, is important. We have a major issue with security of tenure for renters. I was glad last week to be able to text somebody who…

I move amendment No. 2: In page 6, to delete lines 34 and 35, and in page 7, to delete lines 1 to 3 and substitute the following: “ ‘climate justice’ means the requirement that decisions and actions taken, within the State and at the international level, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to the effects of climate change shall, in so far as it is practicable to do so— (a) support the people who are most affected by climate change but who have done the least to cause it and are the least equipped to ada…

We are not pushing this amendment to a vote. We will withdraw the amendment and resubmit it on Report Stage. I would like a bit of indulgence to speak to this amendment and back up some of my other colleagues in the Opposition on the definition of climate justice. The part of the Bill that bothers me more in terms of the weakness of it are the words "as far as practicable" because we all know from other issues in the Constitution that this tends not to be followed through with. The definitions that have been propos…

No, we are withdrawing it, with the intention of resubmitting it on Report Stage.