THE GOVERNMENTS planned publication of the bill to regulate the property market has now run into legal problems. In the Dail on Tuesday, Justice Minister, Dermot Ahern, told Labours Ruairi Quinn that certain legal issues had arisen and that publication of the Bill was subject to their resolution.

The Bill was to have been published before the end of the current Dail session this week - presumably to give us some proper reading during the summer. So the long wait continues . . .

We would be greatly interested to know what are these unexpected legal difficulties. A legal source tells us that they fear the Bill would be challenged in the Supreme Court for constitutionality. It seems that it is being changed now in a hurry.

Its a bit late though, four years on since the McCarthy Group was established and three years since their comprehensive recommendations to reform the operation of a critical sector of the Irish economy.