Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 12, to delete lines 1 to 10 and substitute the following:

"(5) The Fisheries Acts 1959 to 2006, section 111 and this subsection may be cited together as the Fisheries Acts 1959 to 2007, and shall be read together as one.

(6) The Planning and Development Acts 2000 to 2006, section 114 and this subsection may be cited together as the Planning and Development Acts 2000 to 2007, and shall be read together as one.

(7) The Local Government Acts 1925 to 2006, sections 113 and 115 and this subsection may be cited together as the Local Government Acts 1925 to 2007, and shall be read together as one.".

It is worth reminding ourselves what this Bill is about. It is a radical Bill which fundamentally changes the form of delivery and control of water services on local authorities and some amendments speak directly to this. It means local authorities must have a water plan similar to their development plans. Perhaps it is long overdue but we will deliver it at long last. The Bill creates additional enforcement powers for the EPA to ensure the water delivered is safe. The Bill prohibits the privatisation of water services. It gives councillors the responsibility and right to make a water plan. It also provides powers to the Minister because the Minister is relatively powerless in law as it stands at present.

By any standard, this is legislation which not only brings together comprehensively legislation which first came on the Statute Book when Queen Victoria was a small girl. More important, it also brings together the entire panoply of local government law on water services. I am grateful for the considerations given on Committee Stage. I took a great deal of what was stated on board and one will see from the amendments tabled that I have tried to accommodate anything I considered to be appropriate and improving.

The amendments we will discuss are technical amendments to update the wording in a number of collective citations to reflect the change of year from 2006 to 2007. It involves minor cross-referencing for an error. Amendment No. 1 updates the wording of the collective citations in sections 1(5), 1(6) and 1(7) to reflect the change in the year. An additional cross-reference is made in section 1(7) to section 113 to correct a clerical error. The update would normally be picked up automatically. However, I will move it by way of amendment.

Amendments Nos. 40 to 43, inclusive, are technical drafting amendments to update references to the collective citations in the environment protection Acts, the local government Acts, the local government water pollution Acts and the planning and development Acts as inserted in Schedule 12 of the Local Government Act 2001 by section 115 of this Bill to include the current year.

So all of these amendments are technical.

See this speech in context