Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

My amendment No. 143 seeks to achieve the same outcome as the Minister's amendment. I am glad he has clarified that this part of the Bill was not aimed at the elected members of local authorities. I am concerned that the Minister's amendment will not achieve that explicitly. While it takes out the reference to "a member of a relevant public body", section 49(1) is then left ambiguous in terms of whether it applies to members as well as staff of "a relevant public body".

While the Minister's amendment is well intended, it does not make it explicitly clear that elected members of local authorities are not covered and that section 49 does not relate to them. Therefore, the legislation will be left ambiguous. My amendment and the amendment tabled by Deputies Ó Broin and Gould are better because they specify that elected members of local authorities will not be directed to co-operate. That is important because one cannot have a situation where elected members of local authorities are under a legal obligation to co-operate with the LDA. Of course co-operation is a good thing but members of local authorities must not be legally obliged to do so because there are times when they may, within their rights, decide on a different course of action, and the correct one, from the one being proposed by the LDA. Members of local authorities must explicitly be exempt from this rather than what is in the Minister's amendment, which leaves it unspecified. I agree with the points made by the Minister but I am not sure his amendment will explicitly exclude elected local authority members or councillors from this provision. I am concerned that it will, at best, create ambiguity.