Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

7 o’clock

I move amendment No. 5:

In page 6, to delete lines 30 to 37, and in page 7, to delete lines 1 to 11.

As I set out on Committee Stage, I note that the section on offences was placed in Part 1 of the Bill. As I outlined on Committee Stage, this was purely for technical reasons. The Bill was drafted in accordance with recognised drafting convention and legislative practice regarding the structures and arrangement of Acts. There was no other reason to place it in this Part of the Bill and certainly no symbolic or other considerations behind it. Moving the offence provision has no bearing on the substantive operation or application of that section. However, in light of the concerns raised on Committee Stage of the Bill in the Dáil, I asked the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel to look again at the positioning of this section. A number of Deputies made the point that a Bill about access and healthcare for women should not have, as the first thing when one picks up the Bill, the offences section. We asked the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel to look at it again and therefore I am submitting amendments which will have the effect of moving the offences section to Part 3 of the Bill. They propose deleting sections 5 and 6 from Part 1 of the Bill as it currently stands and instead inserting them as new sections, 25 and 26, in Part 3 of the Bill. While this move will have no bearing on the substantive operation of the section, I hope it will address some of the concerns that people raised on Committee Stage about a chill factor in having these sections upfront in the Bill. I will address the other amendments later.

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