Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 9, line 26, after “1997” to insert the following:

“or, as the case may be, section 2(1) of the Local Elections (Disclosure of Donations and Expenditure) Act 1999”.

Amendment No. 1, which I have tabled at the request of the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, is to ensure that the definition of "donation" in section 2 of the Bill is fully comprehensive. In terms of where it originated, we have many different items of legislation - electoral Acts and local authority Acts - in this area and we are looking to come up with a single definition of "donation" in this Bill. Section 2(1) currently provides that donations shall be construed in accordance with section 22 of the Act of 1997. Section 22 of the Electoral Act of 1997 provides that "donation" means any contribution given for political purposes to a political party, a Member of either House of the Oireachtas, a representative in the European Parliament or a third party or a candidate at a Dáil, Seanad or European election. However, this does not cover a donation to a member of a local authority. This amendment is being proposed to ensure that if one is a member of a local authority, one is subject to the force of this Bill in the same way as if one is a Member of the Dáil or any other parliamentary body.

I am proposing amendment No. 2 to explain that the requirement for the existence of a public service pension scheme relates to both a subsidiary and a company in section 6(1)(k). This is a technical amendment to ensure clarity around this provision.

Amendments Nos. 3 and 4 are technical amendments to sections 6(3) and 6(6) to ensure consistency regarding the reference to committee of the Oireachtas throughout the Bill.

Amendment No. 5 relates to section 7 of the Bill. It is a technical amendment I am proposing for clarification purposes. This amendment reiterates the source of income concept, which is provided for in the first line of section 7(2).

Amendment No. 6 is a technical amendment. I am proposing it on the advice of the Attorney General's office to ensure clarity and because the existing text is somewhat colloquial.

Amendment No. 7 is a minor clarification provided to section 7 to ensure a new subsection in order that a political group of the European Parliament and a political party are defined for the purposes of section 7(11).

Amendment No. 8 is a minor text amendment to close the bracket after "1997" in section 9(2).

Amendments Nos. 9 and 10 are being proposed on the advice of the Attorney General to ensure, as is appropriate, that the saver in section 11(2) should cover not just section 11(1) but the other provisions of that section as well.

I am proposing amendment No. 12 to ensure that the prohibition on the use of confidential information in section 14 is comprehensive in its application. This amendment has been included at the request of the Standards in Public Office Commission and will ensure that confidential information is not used improperly to further the interests of any person and not just a connected person.

The insertion of the word "than" in amendment No. 13 gives section 16(4) its proper meaning. This is correcting a typographical error.

Amendment No. 16 refers to closing a bracket.

I am proposing a technical amendment to ensure the words "in which" in amendment No. 17 to section 23(4) for clarification purposes.

I am proposing the minor amendment No. 18 as there is no definition of "officeholder" in the Bill. To be consistent with section 25(1), therefore, the reference in subsection (1)(b) should be to the Minister of the Government rather than the officeholder.

A similar approach is taken in amendment No. 19.

Amendment No. 23 in section 27(1) is a minor textual change that inserts the word "the". The text now refers to the "Office of the Commissioner".

Amendment No. 24 is a technical change so that the Deputy Public Sector Standards Commissioner is referred to in the Bill as the Deputy Commissioner.

I am proposing amendment No. 31 at the request of the Standards in Public Office Commission in order that the new standards commissioner will be allowed to directly lay his or her annual report before the Oireachtas.

Amendment No. 34 in section 32 provides for the deletion of lines 31 and 32. That was determined by the Office of the Attorney General as this piece of legal text did not seem to serve any purpose.

Amendments Nos. 35 and 36 in section 33 are minor text and technical changes to fully reflect the terms "complainant" and "respondent".

Amendments Nos. 42 and 43 in section 39 change the word "finds" to "find".

Amendment No. 86 in section 62 is a minor text change in order to give the text a proper meaning.

Amendment No. 87 in section 64 is a minor change to provide the correct title as the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government on foot of a change in the Department's name in 2016.