Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

A total of 31 amendments were proposed and accepted during Committee and Report Stages of the Bill in the Dáil, including 30 Government amendments and one amendment from the Labour Party. It was possible to incorporate the spirit of a number of amendments proposed by the Opposition.

On group 1, amendments Nos. 1 and 2 concern the saver provisions and the insertion of a new review mechanism. Amendment No. 1 deletes the original section 3(2) of the Bill dealing with the operation of law immediately before commencement of the Act and substitutes new text which provides improved clarity in the matter. I have been advised it is important to ensure that current case law in regard to specific legal terms used in the Bill such as "publication", would be carried forward. The saver now proposed in section 3(2) seeks to achieve this.

Amendment No. 2 inserts a new section into the Bill to provide for a review mechanism to facilitate the assessment of the operation of the legislation. A review will take place not later than five years after the enactment of the Bill. Subsection 5(2) takes account of a proposal from Fine Gael that the review be completed within a particular timeframe. The amendment will ensure that the review of the Act should be completed within one year of the commencement of the Bill.