Ms Rosemary Hennigan:

On the money message, interpretation comes down to Standing Order 179, which is based on Article 17.2 of the Constitution. In some ways, the purpose behind the money message gets lost in these discussions. Its purpose is to prevent legislators from introducing a financial Bill that would have major financial implications for the State. That is a power which is supposed to rest with the Executive. In this instance, the concept of incidental has been used to cover any policy change that would happen. It is hard to see how any policy change introduced by an amendment would not result in some cost, even it is just printing the legislation, retraining staff in the Department or whatever else. We argue that the money message has been bent out of shape and misapplied to block legislators from being able to bring amendments such as this one. This particular case is a good example of how the money message has been used too broadly because we can only see a minor incidental expense in the form of more applications crossing the desk of a departmental official. It is important to consider the provision in that sense because, if that is the case, a money message may not even be required and, therefore, the Government does not have a say in whether a money message is given.