Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy's question is on section 1 which provides for the Short Title, construction, collective citations and for the commencement of sections 13 and 14 by way of commencement order. Sections 13 and 14 deal with the collection from compensators, that is insurance companies, of amounts that the Department would have paid in respect of various benefits such as illness benefits, for instance, for somebody involved in an accident who is subsequently off work. That is all those sections are about. The impact there will be on compensators and we will moving to the same arrangements that apply across Europe generally, which are that if the Department pays income support in respect of, for instance, an illness which is the subject of a compensation claim, those payments made by the public body will be subsequently reclaimed as part of the insurance compensation award.

I do not fully understand the Deputy's references. The Bill is fairly short in length with a limited number of sections. With the House having agreed to time limit the sections, I hope and expect that we will have a very good opportunity to have some debate on each section. This section contains just a general Title description of the Bill and so on. I do not believe there are items in this section which are not set out in some detail in each relevant section of the Bill. As I said, sections 13 and 14 are to do with the Department recovering from compensators, mainly insurance companies, the kinds of payments that I have described.

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