Legislation will be introduced to regulate auctioneers and management agents according to Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, who told the Dáil that early drafts of the Bill had been prepared.
He said would not "condemn, condone or stand over any developers, auctioneers or agents of any kind" who engaged in malpractice or charging what they liked.
Mr Ahern agreed with Labour leader Pat Rabbitte that "there is no argument whatsoever to be made or any justifiable case for auctioneers to have any increase, having worked on the basis of 30,000-35,000 [houses] year, while they are now selling in the range of 94,000 and that figure might drop to 88,000".
Mr Ahern also warned auctioneers that while they usually arranged fees in agreement with the public, "under current competition rules, auctioneers are not allowed to fix fees".
He added that if Mr Rabbitte "thinks they are involved in that they are breaking competition rules".
Mr Rabbitte also expressed his outrage at a newspaper report that estate agents planned to increase their fees by 33 per cent, which would result in the cost of buying and selling a home going up from €5,250 to €7,000.
Mr Rabbitte said: "I don't recall the auctioneers reducing the commission when prices were going up.
"Why are you not bringing in the Competition Authority to deal with this issue? Why are you not bringing forward the Bill which has been promised for five years, to regulate estate agents and auctioneers who can do what they like, charge what they like?"
Mr Ahern said that while the Director of Corporate Enforcement perhaps could not "do much about the legal end", the heads of the property regulator services authority legislation had been drafted and were designed to deal with that issue.
He said that the Bill would "license and regulate management agents who are the source of these problems".
Mr Rabbitte said however that the Bill had nothing to do with the auctioneering business, but with management companies.
"A Bill has been promised by the Minister for Justice for five years to deal with the regulation and licensing of auctioneers. There is no sign of it."
The Labour leader there was "no regulation and there is no licensing".
"Judging from what the Taoiseach has said, he has no intention of sending the Competition Authority after these guys. This is a disgrace. After all the money that has been creamed off in the last 15 years, they are threatening to put up fees by 33 per cent because the price of houses will not rise at the same rate as they have in the last 10 years."
But Mr Ahern reiterated that under competition rules, auctioneers were not allowed to fix fees.
"We have proposed legislation and we have published the heads of a Bill that is responsible for auctioneers and agents. The working group of the Minister for Justice will examine and regulate auctioneers and it is still in action."
