Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 78:

In page 57, lines 15 and 16, to delete all words from and including “The” in line 15 down to and including line 16 and substitute the following: “The Minister shall, not later than 2 years after the coming into operation of this section, commence a review of the operation of this Act, other than Parts 8and 9.”.

This is something we discussed towards the end of our lengthy committee sessions and it was something on which I indicated I would seek to table an amendment under the original Bill. As Deputies know, most Bills now have a review clause whereby they will be reviewed in terms of their actions within a specific period of time. Under the initial legislation, the proposal was for a review within four years.

Deputy Funchion brought forward an amendment proposing the period be one year. I said that I did not think one year was enough time to examine the overall operation of the legislation. Therefore, I am bringing forward what I hope will be an agreeable compromise to review the legislation at the two-year point. This will give sufficient time for it to be implemented and qualitative and quantitative data to be collected to make sure the review can be meaningful. It will take time for the process to scale up. There is a risk that in doing a review too early, potential issues and flaws would not yet have materialised. Two years is a good timeframe at which to carry out a review. That is the nature of this amendment.

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