Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

The proposed new section empowers the High Court or the Circuit Court to adjourn civil proceedings with the consent of the parties to facilitate arbitration and the Minister explained why this replacement is being inserted. I am asked to agree it is a superior provision and, in so far as I am competent, I so do.

Will the Minister address my amendment No. 13? I advanced it on the basis that it was necessary to ensure the section was constitutional. I explained previously that my advice is that Article 37 of the Constitution only allows the determination of matters in criminal proceedings to be made by juridical bodies and, thus, it would not be open to the court to allow for arbitration in any criminal matter. Is that provided for in the Minister's revamp? If not, is the Minister arguing it is unnecessary to make that clarification in the legislation?

I tabled amendment No. 14 to insert the wording "with the consent of the parties" and what the Minister has done probably addresses that. Unless the consent of the parties was required, the difficulty was that the section could give rise to fundamental alteration of the legal system and that was not intended. I would be obliged if the Minister would address the reason I wanted to insert the word "civil" in line 28 to make clear that the reference was not just to any proceedings.

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