Charlie O'Connor (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)

Whether it is in Castleknock, Tallaght or elsewhere there will always be different views on gaming and lotteries and we should reflect that. What is being done in this case should satisfy people.

Other Deputies made reference to Part 7, which amends the Statutory Declarations Act 1938. More experienced colleagues might be able to give me advice on this matter. I am sure many Acts still exist that are rather dated. It is only when we go through business such as this that we understand that considerable work remains to be done to amend legislation. This does not even take into account the many changes that happen on a daily basis. If one were to listen to Dáil debates every day one would come up with all sorts of new ideas as to how to amend legislation.

I note section 59 takes account of the fact that increasingly foreign nationals who are here to do business or as workers need to transact legal or other business involving the making of statutory declarations. The current requirements of that Act are that the person making the declaration must either be personally known to the witness before whom the declaration is being made or is identified to the witness by someone personally known. This naturally creates difficulties where the person seeking to make the declaration is a foreign national who knows very few people in the State, and whose network of acquaintances here may be such that none of them is personally known to a peace commissioner or other person qualified under the Act to be a witness to a declaration. The solution is to amend section 2 of the Statutory Declarations Act to allow for additional means of identification of a person making a statutory declaration. I know most foreign nationals here carry a passport or other form of national identification from their country.

Unlike many of my colleagues I never sat at my school desk saying I wanted to become a Deputy. I was always quite normal and became involved in politics through community endeavour. However, I was made a peace commissioner in 1979 by a Deputy who, I suspect, never believed I wanted to be anything else, which was fair enough. Over the years I still get many calls, including this week. It does not just happen in Tallaght. When people leading a clean life and never brought to the attention of the Garda go to a station, they are not known to the gardaí and may need to find somebody else who can identify them and get a form signed. We need to reconsider such matters. Many local authority and college forms need to be authorised. I sometimes have difficulty trying to determine the best way to deal with a matter.

I know there is a debate on whether people need to be present, who should be responsible and how to identify people. I am known by a few people in my area and still I always carry my ID as a matter of routine. There will always be somebody who does not know me or will wonder who I am.

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