Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

I move amendment No. 6:

In page 13, lines 18 and 19, to delete all words from and including "any" in line 18 down to and including "Act)" in line 19 and substitute the following:

"its functions as he or she considers appropriate".

This is a technical amendment. Its purpose is to simply align the wording of section 13(5) with that in section 13(1). The latter provides that I may give general policy directions to the commission in respect of its functions, whereas section 13(5) provides that I may give policy guidelines to the commission as regards the functions assigned to it by law. The difference in language used in the two subsections when referring to the functions of the commission suggests a different interpretation was intended. That is not the case. The textual change proposed in amendment No. 6 makes the wording of section 13(5) similar to section 13(1).

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