Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 8:

In page 10, line 9, to delete “any code of practice” and substitute “the code or codes of practice published under section 9".

Deputy Clare Daly sends her apologies. She is attending the abortion committee meeting and I am moving amendment No. 8 on her behalf. Amendment No. 9 is in my name and that of the Minister. Deputy Daly's amendment is pretty similar except that she wants to insert "code or codes of practice" instead of "any code of practice" in section 8(1)(c). A reference to "any code of practice" to which a mediator subscribes is really the same as "the code or codes of practice of practice" to which he or she subscribes as "any" covers the possibility that the mediator might subscribe to more than one code of practice. The provision for more than one code to be published under section 9 is simply because mediation can, is and will be used in very different situations from family law to commercial law. The requirements of those distinct situations will be very different. Procedures to be followed and issues to be watched out for will be quite different in a mediation involving two parents separating versus a commercial law dispute between two international corporations. It makes sense, therefore, to have different codes of practice tailored to these different categories of dispute.

I turn to the requirement for mediators to furnish to parties to mediation the code or codes of practice published or approved under section 9 to which they subscribe. Our amendments are in some way of a piece with Deputy Madigan's amendment No. 11, which requires mediators to abide by the code of practice published or approved under section 9. All of the amendments have the goal of getting mediators to abide by a code of practice created under section 9. We are supportive of the additional requirement proposed by Deputy Madigan in amendment No. 11 for mediators to abide by the code of practice published under section 9 albeit we note that if our amendment and that of the Government with regard to there being more than one code publishable under section 9 are accepted, Deputy Madigan's amendment would need to be amended in turn to reflect the fact.

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