Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputies for their comments. I concur with Deputy Coveney with regard to the reason this was included as it was. I have mentioned that this is somewhat inelegant in the way it is drafted, but we tried to tidy it up to make it clear. I am told that from the legal perspective we should generally ensure "may" matches "may" and "shall" matches "shall" and so on and so forth. However, the provision meets the requirements of the Deputies and others with regard to mandatory testing. I acknowledge the work done by Deputies on all sides in this regard. We had a good debate on the issues. We made some amendments to the Bill in the Dáil and then took it to the Seanad where it was amended further. It has now returned to the Dáil so we can finish the job.

See this speech in context