Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

The way we do business in the House is sometimes frustrating. I accept the case the Minister is making will capture most cases. There will, however, be an exception where someone will be excluded because the domicile is not clear. It does no disservice to accept this amendment. In most legislation, the starting premise of Departments is to find the argument against it, and there is an argument against everything, but if this does no harm and meets the requirements of the House to ensure this is done, I cannot see why the amendment cannot be accepted. Clearly the Minister thinks it is redundant but that also means it is not of any injury while in my view it makes it clear that we are including foreign service officers or personnel serving abroad with the military or long-term servants of the State who are out of the jurisdiction and whose domicile may, for a prolonged period of time, not be of the State.

The Minister, however, is not minded to be flexible on the matter and there are significant other issues to address.

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