Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)

I assure Deputy Hogan that the Minister, Deputy Martin, is entirely on board in accepting this terminology and the point was strongly made by Deputies Hogan, Howlin, Morgan and others. I dealt with the specific point raised by Deputy Morgan in my statement, in that the 2003 Act is also hereby amended to state that "foreign national" means a non-national within the meaning of the Immigration Act 1999, which defines it as a person who is not a citizen of the State. Due to the fact that those two Acts are impacted upon, the non-EEA national would be the less appropriate amendment in these circumstances. That is why we opted for the term "foreign nationals". Language, its usage and sub-text meaning changes and that has to be reflected in legislation in so far as is possible.

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