Mr. Evan Cullen:

All I can say is we have told the Department. It has not asked us for the advice and, in general, we do not give out advice. Nevertheless, my question is why the Department does not produce advice to the contrary. We have challenged it on this. It has never put forward a technical point stating that our amendments cannot be made to the legislation. It has only expressed the opinion that they should not be included in primary legislation.

I also take issue with the fact that, when representatives of the IAA appeared before this committee, the designated chairperson stated the IAA did not disagree in principle with IALPA’s amendments. The letters from the IAA to the Seanad, however, are absolutely clear that the authority disagrees in principle with our amendments.