Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 43:

In page 10, between lines 32 and 33, to insert the following:“(l) EirGrid Plc.,”.

There are quite a number of amendments to be dealt with, all of which cover one point. I want to go through them individually, not in an argumentative way.

The section I seek to amend is the definition section of the Bill, section 7. It defines a public service body, and refers to a Department of State, An Garda Síochána, the HSE, the National Pension Reserve Fund, NAMA, the National Treasury Management Agency, local authorities, etc. It is quite a group; 11 organisations are listed. I know it is not possible to have a final exhaustive list, but the Minister has made a fair stab at it by including 11 specific organisations, many of which are quite large. The HSE employees 100,000 or thereabouts and is the largest organisation in the country.

I am not seeking to break any new principle; I just want to add to the list of the 11 organisations named. I want to include, under the list of public bodies, EirGrid, which operates in the public interest in the same way as education and training boards or other similar organisations. The Minister mentioned including the Revenue Commissioners. Where does one stop in the designation of public officials? When I referred to the Secretary General, the Minister asked where that would leave the chairperson of the Revenue Commissioners. I propose to include the Revenue Commissioners as a public body.

If the Revenue Commissioners is not listed as a public service body, will it be difficult to include its chairperson as a designated public official? Secretaries General, members of local authorities, CEOs, directors of services and assistant secretaries, as the Minister has indicated in correspondence, are included. The non-inclusion of the Revenue Commissioners in the definition of public bodies may make it more difficult to include it, even though many people believe it should be included. How will the Minister include the chairperson as a prescribed officeholder under the Bill if he or she is not in a public body listed in the Bill? We need clarification on that.

Amendment No. 45 deals with Ervia, the parent company of Irish Water. It goes without saying that we have thrashed that out umpteen times, and it is important that it is included.

Amendment No. 46 deals with the Revenue Appeals Commissioner. Will it not be possible to include it under the statutory instruments because it will not be listed a public body?

I have asked for An Post to be included because it has an monopoly on the delivery of post to residential addresses and normal letter post.

Amendment No. 48 refers to any organisation with the word "regulator" in its title.

That covers quite a few regulators, although I will not spell out all of them. Is it possible to include them in the legislation? The Minister has indicated that in due course he may work his way down to principal officers in designated bodies, Departments of the State or local authorities, but it seems that he will not be able to include the chairperson of the Revenue Commissioners if that is not deemed a public body under this section. I hope the Minister will clarify that it will be possible to include people by way of statutory instrument in some other manner in the public interest if the annual review indicates as much, but will there be a requirement to change the legislation to include organisations as public service bodies under the definition in section 7? The Railway Procurement Agency is an important organisation and it should be included, along with An Bord Pleanála.

Perhaps the Minister will accept these amendments; I do not know. How can the Minister tell us that under the definition section in this legislation, a public service body would not include An Bord Pleanála, the Revenue Commissioners, the Competition Authority or the Environmental Protection Agency? Although they are the essence of what constitutes a public service body, they are not included in the Minister's list of 11 organisations. I am happy with those 11 bodies, but the list is too small. I will not even respond to the Minister's words when he spoke about trying to include extra elements in the legislation, but with this set of amendments, nobody could comprehend how there could be a definition of a public service body in this legislation that would exclude EirGrid, the Revenue Commissioners, the Office of the Appeal Commissioners, regulators, An Bord Pleanála, the Competition Authority and the Environmental Protection Agency. They are public service bodies.

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