Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 94a:

In page 61, subsection (2), line 34, after “subsection (1)” to insert the following:“but may not exceed the cost of providing the service, estimated by the Minister, to which the fee relates”.

I hope that people will welcome my amendment. At the outset I want to make it clear that there is no intention to introduce new fees in this legislation. The basic idea of the section is to ensure that any new Minister may only introduce new fees that are clearly linked to a service that is being provided. It is not intended that fees would be onerous or yield any form of profit. Therefore, to address concerns raised by some Deputies I have introduced the amendment which further ensures any fees a future Minister might introduce can be at a rate no higher than the cost of the service linked to the fee. It safeguards to prevent people making money out of fees.