Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 2:

In page 3, lines 26 and 27, to delete “the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage” and substitute “An Coimisiún Toghcháin”.

I addressed the matter to which the amendment relates on Committee Stage. This is a technical amendment. We are simply seeking to replace the reference to the Minister with a reference to the commission in recognition of the fact that while previous Acts referred to the Minister, they predated the establishment of a permanent and independent Electoral Commission. We did have a debate on this on Committee Stage. I tabled the amendment again to simply make the point that believe, as I said on Committee Stage, we need to ensure our legislation is up to date. We are simply seeking to deal with this in a constructive manner without in any way seeking to challenge a question the commission’s report. This is just to ensure the legislation reflects the changing context. I refer in particular to a change where we have now established a very welcome new commission, An Coimisiún Toghcháin. The reference should now be to that.

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