Changes to rent controls announced - discussion

bipped said:
Could posters who understand the committee amendments stages of bills explain please? Do amendments at this stage get included in the final Act?
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If the opposition propose the amendments, they don't get included. If the government parties propose them they do.
 
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Greenbook said:
If the opposite propose the amendments, they don't get included. If the government parties propose them they do.
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Thank you for your reply. Apologies for another question but one of the links I included is from the Seanad committee, is that the same?
 
bipped said:
Thank you for your reply. Apologies for another question but one of the links I included is from the Seanad committee, is that the same?
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No, to pass legislation, the Dail (the TDs) must vote in favour of it and then the Seanad must vote in favour of it as well. It then goes to the President to be signed. It becomes law at that point unless the Act states that it will come into effect at a later date or when a Ministerial order is signed.
 
Greenbook said:
the Dail (the TDs) must vote in favour of it and then the Seanad must vote in favour of it as well
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Thank you for your patience.

So is the final bill (that the dail votes on), is that a version that comes with Dail and Seanad amendments? And then when that’s passed by the Dail, it goes back to the Seanad, and then to the President?

Just trying to understand if the ban on all rent increases in that list from the Seanad will be in the final Act.

So many people I know were caught out by waiting for previous changes to become law, I’m thinking about Dec2016 when changes came in overnight.
 
bipped said:
Just trying to understand if the ban on all rent increases in that list from the Seanad will be in the final Act.
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It is a complicated enough process. The Seanad can really only delay a bill it doesn't like.

The bottom line is that opposition changes won't be included in the final Act. What you are talking about here - a rent freeze in effect - was proposed by opposition TDs, so it won't be in the final version.

You do have to watch these things like a hawk, though. The government sometimes slips new rules in at Committee stage.
 
Governments do occasionally accept amendments proposed by the opposition. This is more likely to happen if the amendments is a sound technical improvement that doesn't have policy implications (or, in other words, that is consistent with the government's policy). Amendments proposed in order to call attention to opposition policy, or to contrast the differences between government policy and opposition policy, are most unlikely to be accepted by the government.

The bottom line is that the government decides which amendments will be taken on, and which will be rejected. The government has a cast-iron majority in both houses, so it wins all the votes.
 
Norman Lamont speech to the House of Commons upon his resignation 1993 -

I now wish to say one thing ; it goes to the heart of the way in which the Government conduct themselves. There is something wrong with the way in which we make our decisions. The Government listen too much to the pollsters and the party managers. The trouble is that they are not even very good at politics, and they are entering too much into policy decisions. As a result, there is too much short-termism, too much reacting to events, and not enough shaping of events. We give the impression of being in office but not in power. Far too many important decisions are made for 36 hours' publicity. Yes, we are politicians as well as policy-makers ; but we are also the trustees of the nation. I believe that in politics one should decide what is right and then decide the presentation, not the other way round. Unless this approach is changed, the Government will not survive, and will not deserve to survive.
 
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