David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 32:

In page 19, between lines 28 and 29, to insert the following:

“Review of operation of Act 6. (1) The Minister shall, not later than 3 years following the passing of this Act, carry out a review of the operation of this Act, subject to subsection (2).

(2) Where sections of this Act have yet to be commenced within the timeframe set out in subsection (1), these sections shall not be subject to the review under subsection (1) but shall be subject to a subsequent review not less than 5 years following the passing of this Act.”.

My amendment is very straightforward. We seek a new section 6 review of the operation of the Act. As in a lot of Acts, we always seek to have a review built in.

Earlier the Minister mentioned the complexity of this issue and that there will be issues that we may need to come back to, at some point, that we cannot deal with here. My amendment proposes that there be an initial review within three years, which is a very reasonable period, and then a statutory obligation to review it. I am not sure if that is an option that the Minister has examined himself or given consideration to in terms of what a review process would look like or what reasonable timeframe there should be for a review. I do not want to hold up the meeting and will only say that because of the complexity, and range of issues that are at play, my amendment is important. Given this is a big Bill with all of these amendments, and a whole new Bill going into an existing Bill, it is prudent to make provision for a review.