Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I apologise to the House. My officials have just been notified that on the costings I provided to Deputies, the costs are fine but the percentage days lost need to be redone. I have asked my officials to redo that and we will send copies immediately to Deputy Sean Fleming. I will also send it to the Deputies who were in the House earlier and are absent now. I wall also send it to the Ceann Comhairle's office to ensure the record of the House accurately reflects that. I apologise for that.

Amendments Nos. 3 and 4 are in the name of Deputy Fleming. The tabled amendments to section 2 take account of the proposed insertion of Part 7A of the Bill. The intention of the Deputy is already addressed in the text of these amendments. I have taken account of the fact that since the Bill was considered by the Seanad, the VECs have been abolished and replaced by the education and training boards. Consequently we have already incorporated these changes in the text now before the House. Those amendments are already addressed and I thank the Deputy for pointing that out - we were able to do that in the Seanad.

Amendment No. 5 would require me to publish two lists within 30 days of enactment of the Bill. The amendment is not necessary in either case. The first list, which is referred to in line 1 of page 4 is of "such other body or bodies as may be prescribed by the Minister by order under section 6 in accordance with that section". Such orders are statutory instruments and must be laid before the Houses and published in accordance with the Statutory Instruments Act 1947. I confirm that SI 551/2007 was made under this section to extend the remit of the Commission for Public Service Appointments to appointments being made by the Health Information and Quality Authority. No other orders have been made under this section.

The second list to which the Deputy refers at lines 15 to 38 of page 4 relates to bodies "in respect of which a pre-existing public service pension scheme exists or applies or may be made, or in respect of which the Single Public Service Pension Scheme is applicable". This list has already been published. In December 2012, in exercise of powers conferred on me by section 8(1)(b) of the Public Service Pensions (Single Scheme and Other Provisions) Act 2012, I signed a statutory instrument, SI 581/2012, in accordance with the terms of the Statutory Instruments Act 1947. It sets out the details of the Ministers of the Government, public service bodies and bodies corporate that are prescribed as relevant authorities for the purposes of the public service pensions scheme.

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