Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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I move amendment No. 12:

In page 11, line 4, after "employer" to insert "or education".

Amendments Nos. 12 and 13 relate to information that is to be provided by applicants in the application form, while amendments Nos. 14 and 30 relate to the verification of the identity of applicants. Amendments Nos. 12 and 13 are minor technical drafting amendments. They amend section 9, which specifies the process by which parents may make applications for financial support under the scheme and the details they must provide. One such detail is the name and address of the parent's employer or education and training provider, as appropriate. However, the word "education", which is included in the reference to an employer or education and training provider in section 10, is accidentally omitted in similar references in section 9. These amendments simply rectify that omission.

Unfortunately, following submission of the list of amendments for Committee Stage, a third such omission was identified in the phrase "employer or training provider" in section 9(4)(c). I hope to correct that by proposing a similar minor technical amendment on Report Stage.

Moving to amendments Nos. 14 and 30, they both relate to the verification of identity and allow for the inclusion or reference to children alongside existing references to the applicant and his or her partner. The Bill already allows for the possibility of checks to confirm that an application does not involve fraud or misrepresentation and such checks may involve checks on the identity of the applicant and the applicant's partner. These two amendments would allow the possibility that such checks may include the identity of children who have been named in the application.