A landlord and tenant (law reform) Bill is expected to deal with the shortage of accommodation and the legal framework governing the landlord-tenant relationship. In that context, I welcome the long-awaited and long-resisted increase in rent allowance. It took three or four years to convince the Government of the importance of such an increase in preventing more people from becoming homeless. Many landlords are still refusing rent allowance applications. This issue needs to be tackled and the landlord and tenant (law reform) Bill will provide an opportunity to do so.
The programme for Government includes a commitment to establish an electoral commission to "examine the voter registration process and in particular the possibility of the PPS system being used to automatically add people to the electoral register once they reach voting age". When will the commission be established?
The programme for Government states that within 100 days the Government will establish a mobile phone and broadband task force involving various Departments to provide immediate solutions to the broadband-phone coverage deficit. Has this task force been established?
The programme for Government also contains a commitment to ask "the Central Bank of Ireland to instigate a review of the continued appropriateness of the savings limit within a year of the formation of the new Partnership Government". This proposal is to deal with the savings limit that applies to the credit union movement. In addition, it commits to asking the credit union advisory committee to conduct a review and report by the end of this year. Has the Government asked the advisory committee to conduct such a review? Is the Minister confident that the report will be produced by the end of 2016, as the Government has committed?