John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 37:

In page 14, to delete lines 7 to 9 and substitute the following: “(3) The Schedule shall apply in relation to the oversight committee.

(4) The oversight committee shall stand dissolved on such day as the Minister may, by order, appoint.

(5) Upon and from the dissolution of the oversight committee in accordance with subsection (4), the functions of the oversight committee under this Act (other than subsection (8)ofsection 19) shall be performable by the Minister and, accordingly, references in this Act (other than this section, subsection (8)of section 19and the Schedule) to oversight committee shall, from the date of such dissolution, be construed as references to the Minister.”.

This amendment reverses the order of subsections (3) and (4) of section 15 and inserts a new subsection (5) to provide that the Minister may perform any oversight committee function specified under the Act after the oversight committee has been dissolved. The exception to this is the provision in section 18 dealing with compliance with the Act, whereby the oversight committee may report to the Minister on measures that it considers should be adopted to achieve compliance with the Act.

The purpose of amendment No. 58 is to make the section 18 provision dealing with the making of arrangements by the two local authorities for the performance of functions optional rather than mandatory. It has been put forward at the request of the implementation group which does does not consider that a mandatory provision is necessary.

Other amendments I am proposing to section 18 are consequential to this change. These are the deletion by amendment No. 60 of subsection (6) requiring the Minister to make an arrangement if the local authorities fail to so do; the replacement of subsection (7), dealing with the amendment of arrangements made by the local authorities and made by the Minister, with a new subsection that simply provides that the Cork local authorities, after consulting with the oversight group, may amend or revoke an arrangement made under the section; and the deletion by amendment No. 62 of subsection (10) providing that an agreement may not be revoked without the Minister’s consent. The latter subsection is now superfluous.

Amendment No. 59 is a technical drafting change to remove superfluous text in subsection (3)(a). Amendment No. 63 is a drafting change to the order of the wording of subsection (11).