Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 151:

In page 21, between lines 2 and 3, to insert the following:

“Guidance to Advisory Council

15. (1) The Advisory Council shall have regard to any guidance given by the Minister to it in relation to the exercise of its functions under this Act.

(2) The Minister may not give the Advisory Council guidance as to the content of any advice or report.

(3) The power to give guidance under subsection (1) includes power to vary or revoke the guidance.”.

This is about guidance to the advisory council. There was some misunderstanding on Committee Stage about the amendment. The Minister understood it to suggest that the advisory council could be interfered with by him, whereas the purpose of the amendment is quite specific, namely, to stop any potential interference by the Minister. It is very clearly stated that the Minister may not give the advisory council guidance as to the content of any advice or report. That is taken verbatim from the Scottish Act of 2009 and its function is to ensure the independence of the functions of the advisory council from ministerial interference, which we spoke about earlier.

On one level it is interesting that the Minister joked about the matter on Committee Stage and said that he might like to interfere with the council, which gives us great confidence that we are correct to move the amendment now.

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