Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputies. As they have mentioned, the amendment seeks to reinsert provisions similar to section 1A of the Planning and Development Act 2000 which lists the EU laws and international conventions that are given effect or further effect by the Bill. This Bill already includes the relevant provisions where a provision is to give effect to EU law. For example, section 180 states "The purpose of [Chapter 2 of Part 6] is to give effect to the State’s obligations under paragraphs 3 and 4 of Article 6 of the Habitats Directive in relation to plans". Likewise, section 202 states "The purpose of [Chapter 4 of Part 6] is to give effect to the State’s obligations under the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive". As such, where a provision or group of provisions will give effect to EU law it will specifically state it. We got very clear and direct advice from the AGO in this regard, which was that it is not appropriate to have a general provision because, first, they are all included within the Bill in the appropriate sections and, second, it may give a false impression that the Bill as a whole is given the directive effect without identifying the relevant provisions. The relevant provisions, of which I have given two examples, are in the Bill so we will not be accepting these amendments.