Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 7, line 7, to delete “through committees of” and substitute “by”.

I do not intend to spend much time on this group of amendments as all of the Government amendments address some unfinished drafting business from Committee Stage. They all relate to the removal from the Bill of references to the relevant committee structure.

On amendments Nos. 1 and 2, the proposed changes to the Long Title relate purely to changes made on Committee Stage insofar as the relevant committee structure was concerned. They delete elements of the Long Title that concern this structure, the purpose being that the Long Title will be fully consistent with its provisions. Amendments Nos. 66 to 72, inclusive, 74, 79, 80, 96, 98, 101, 103 and 104 all achieve the same purpose of deleting what might be described as superfluous references to the relevant committees across ten sections of the Bill. There is, therefore, some tidying up to be done and amendment No. 66 does this in respect of section 26(1) by deleting a leftover reference to a relevant committee. Amendment No. 67 addresses a punctuation issue.

Amendment No. 68 deletes a drafting construction referring to a relevant committee inserted for the purposes of section 9, which is also superfluous. Amendment No. 69 removes a hang-over reference to "relevant committee" in section 27. Section 27(3), as passed by the select committee, provided for an interpretation in terms of the relevant committees of certain references. With the removal of the relevant committee structure, such interpretation has no meaning and amendment No. 70 simply deletes subsection (3), as is necessary.

Amendments Nos. 71 and 72 are further drafting amendments, in this case taken together, to make sense of section 28(1) in order that it is clear that the records to be kept include records relating to the recommendations of the commission as those of a relevant committee will not exist under the Bill.

Amendment No. 74 is a drafting amendment relating to the removal from the Bill of the word "committee" and inserts the term "Commission" in its stead. Again, the amendment is essential to achieve consistency across the drafting.

Amendments Nos. 79 and 80 are also drafting amendments. Amendments Nos. 96, 98 and 101 are further drafting amendments that propose deletions from the Bill. Amendment No. 103 removes the reference to "relevant committee" from section 55, while amendment No. 104 makes a similar correction in respect of section 58.

Having regard to the meat and veg of the Bill, so to speak, to which we will come later this afternoon, I put it to Members opposite that at this stage we are merely acknowledging issues that were considered and passed on Committee Stage. My contention is that these are merely drafting amendments to ensure consistency and that we have a workable legislation.

I welcome the Minister, Deputy Ross.

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