David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have a brief opening statement, if the Chairman will allow it. In setting out to discuss the Government amendments being proposed at today's meeting, members might like to have a sense of how and why those amendments have come about.

Section 2 of the Bill as initiated deals with the amendment of section 1 of the Courts (No. 3) Act, 1986, which is the primary purpose of the Bill.

Section 1 of the Act of 1986 deals with the issuing of summonses in respect of offences as a matter of administrative procedure. In 2004, the 1986 Act was recast, principally for the purpose of allowing for the issue of a summons to be effected by transmitting it by electronic means to the person who applied for it. This allowed for the issuing of summonses electronically by the relevant court office in addition to the issuing of summonses manually. The introduction of the third payment requires not only the issuing of summonses by electronic means but also the creation of the summons in an automatic manner.

The drafting approach to achieve this has undergone a revision by the Office of the Attorney General since the Bill was published. The five Government amendments to section 2 of the Bill now being proposed are intended to give effect to this revised drafting approach. The revised drafting approach is intended to ensure that the amendments to the 1986 Act to be made by the Bill are as legally robust, straightforward and challenge-proof as possible. The original drafting approach in the Bill as initiated sought to integrate the new method of the creation of a summons in an automatic manner with existing provisions of the Act of 1986, particularly those relating to the notion of an original summons document and true copy summonses. However, in the new automated system, there is no longer considered to be a need for a physical original in circumstances where both the original and the copy are created from the same source data and on foot of an automated process. The revised drafting approach as set out under today's amendments seeks to follow through on this conclusion by not applying the original true copy separation in the case of the new automated process for the issuing of summonses. The revised drafting approach therefore provides in a clearer, more distinct way for the new automated system as an additional but still legally robust method for the issue of a summons. It is mainly technical stuff, as the Chairman will appreciate.