Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)

Having regard to the huge level of mobility where, for example, my county is a commuter county, which would have been unthinkable in 1924, I would have thought it preferable to have a general application for the purposes of the signing or serving of warrants. I suggest that it could be done in any part of the country and that we would not differentiate between those who would be entitled to swear a document in any county, as opposed to another area, or persons who would be charged with a duty to take affidavits or statutory declarations in one county and maybe not in another.

Are we just going halfway towards dealing with a problem that might be dealt with by way of accepting that it would be sufficient for a document to be authenticated in any part of the country rather than having different designated persons for different counties? Would it not be possible to have the Republic of Ireland as a designated place for the purpose of the documentation and to state that any document could be sworn before any peace commissioner in any part of the jurisdiction without the need to introduce this amendment? The only difficulty I have with the amendment is that it seems to just go halfway towards dealing with an inconvenience, rather than a problem.

See this speech in context