Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 2:

In page 10, between lines 27 and 28, to insert the following:"(3) The amendment of a statutory instrument by subsection (2)does not prevent or restrict the subsequent amendment or revocation of the instrument by another statutory instrument.".

This is a technical amendment proposed by the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel. A statutory instrument may amend another statutory instrument. However, such an instrument may not amend primary legislation. In the Schedules to the Bill we are amending statutory instruments as part of the general exercise of cleaning up references to the likes of the National Pensions Reserve Fund which is being abolished. This raises the question of whether a statutory instrument amended by the Bill can subsequently be amended by a statutory instrument. For the avoidance of doubt, the amendment provides that it can be so amended.