asked the Minister for Justice if he has any proposals to give relief to persons holding long occupational leases for business purposes now nearing expiry and for whom the reliefs available under the Landlord and Tenant Act, 1931, are inadequate.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Occupational Leases.
94.
A considerable amount of work has already been done on the preparation of a comprehensive Landlord and Tenant Bill. This will be a complex and lengthy Bill, and I am not in a position to say when the final text will be ready for circulation.
The Bill will include proposals arising out of recommendations that have been made by the Landlord and Tenant Commission in their report entitled "Report on Occupational Tenancies under the Landlord and Tenant Act, 1931". Among these are recommendations that certain reliefs, additional to those given by the Act of 1931, should be given to occupational business tenants.
May I ask, in view of the delay that seems to be inevitable in introducing this legislation, will any aspect of it be retrospective so as to give relief to this type of person? There is a large number of people who are being prejudiced at the moment by the defects of the present law.
I cannot undertake that any specific aspect of it will be retrospective because one has to look at the rights on both sides.
Could it be introduced as a matter of grave urgency?
I have endeavoured to get it circulated but unfortunately it is a Bill of enormous complexity. There are well over 100 sections in it, some very long that would take five or ten minutes to read and possibly five or ten hours to understand.
We are well used to this.
It is being re-drafted to try to simplify it a bit. Unfortunately, my basic problem is that I have not got enough staff in my Department to deal quickly with it.