Results 4,041-4,060 of 6,030 for speaker:Brendan Ryan

Seanad: Interpretation Bill 2000: Report and Final Stages. (29 Jun 2005)

Brendan Ryan: I thank the Deputy Leader for facilitating us in that regard.

Seanad: Interpretation Bill 2000: Report and Final Stages. (29 Jun 2005)

Brendan Ryan: Copyright.

Seanad: Interpretation Bill 2000: Committee Stage. (29 Jun 2005)

Brendan Ryan: I am intrigued that the Interpretation Bill 2000 is going to be one of the most difficult pieces of legislation to interpret. Something is seriously wrong and I do not know what it is. Section 6 is a fine example. It intends to be a catch-all to prevent people having to brandish their spears to prove they are entitled to enter the Houses of the Oireachtas, or something like that from the 14th...

Seanad: Interpretation Bill 2000: Committee Stage. (29 Jun 2005)

Brendan Ryan: Their lordships just want us to write the law so they can slap it down.

Seanad: Interpretation Bill 2000: Committee Stage. (29 Jun 2005)

Brendan Ryan: Section 7 begins: "In construing a provision of an Act for the purposes of section 5 or 6,". Section 6 states "a court may make allowances for any changes in the law, social conditions, technology, the meaning of words" etc. and section 5 deals with construing ambiguous or obscure provisions. It surprises me that a court may make use of many things as reference points for interpreting...

Seanad: Interpretation Bill 2000: Committee Stage. (29 Jun 2005)

Brendan Ryan: No, it does not clarify anything. Section 6 states, "In construing a provision of any Act or statutory instrument, a court may make allowances for any changes in the law, social conditions, technology, the meaning of words used in an Act or statutory instrument and other relevant matters...". How would it not help to clarify what was meant by the words at the time the legislation was passed?...

Seanad: Interpretation Bill 2000: Committee Stage. (29 Jun 2005)

Brendan Ryan: I will table an amendment on Report Stage. If the Minister of State says he will interpret this amendment elsewhere, even in the Dáil, I will be happy. However, a reference to the Houses of the Oireachtas should not be excluded from the section.

Seanad: Interpretation Bill 2000: Committee Stage. (29 Jun 2005)

Brendan Ryan: The sections states "the court may make use of all matters...". I am concerned that by outlining what the court may do, the Minister of State is also stating what it may not do. If it does not mean the courts are prevented from doing other things, the section is unnecessary but if it means they are prevented from doing other things, then the section is outlining only what they may do. The...

Seanad: Interpretation Bill 2000: Committee Stage. (29 Jun 2005)

Brendan Ryan: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Interpretation Bill 2000: Committee Stage. (29 Jun 2005)

Brendan Ryan: As I sit here, I feel I could return to the time of Gutenberg's invention of the printing press, when people said something was not authentic unless it was handwritten and that printers were an untrustworthy idea. The machines could produce many documents. People asked how they could possibly be secure if they did not have a handwritten inscribed document. I am certain this is what they said...

Seanad: Interpretation Bill 2000: Committee Stage. (29 Jun 2005)

Brendan Ryan: I should be able to examine every single Act. Any Member who cannot handle the technology should learn how to do so on a special course.

Seanad: Interpretation Bill 2000: Committee Stage. (29 Jun 2005)

Brendan Ryan: This is 80 years later.

Seanad: Interpretation Bill 2000: Committee Stage. (29 Jun 2005)

Brendan Ryan: It was Gateway, which has since closed down.

Seanad: Interpretation Bill 2000: Committee Stage. (29 Jun 2005)

Brendan Ryan: This is just like Gutenberg.

Seanad: Interpretation Bill 2000: Committee Stage. (29 Jun 2005)

Brendan Ryan: I must put the last three lines of section 14 on the record of the house: "A comma immediately before a reference to a year and a comma immediately after such a reference that is not required for the purpose of punctuation may be omitted". I am referring to the ludicrous nature of law as much as anything else and am not making fun of anyone. I appreciate that this provision is significant but...

Seanad: Interpretation Bill 2000: Committee Stage. (29 Jun 2005)

Brendan Ryan: That is only the case where the legislation is coming into force, which is not the same thing. For example, the Health (Mental Services) Act 1981 never came into force.

Seanad: Interpretation Bill 2000: Committee Stage. (29 Jun 2005)

Brendan Ryan: The Minister of State might draw the Attorney General's attention to this amendment since he was so concerned about marginal and shoulder notes in his earlier advice.

Seanad: Interpretation Bill 2000: Committee Stage. (29 Jun 2005)

Brendan Ryan: It is a great pity that where postal services are described, no attempt was made to include electronic postal services. I genuinely perceive that we are reliving the Gutenberg experience whereby modern technology is being resisted because people do not believe it can do the job as effectively old snail mail. We must move on. If the Judiciary will not lead on this, the Oireachtas must drive...

Seanad: Interpretation Bill 2000: Committee Stage. (29 Jun 2005)

Brendan Ryan: I will not comment on the Minister of State's last few remarks. We will leave them to history. I have concerns on subsection (2)(a) which states, "a person appointed under the former enactment shall continue to act for the remainder of the period for which the person was appointed as if appointed under the new enactment". I am thinking of the Government's proposal to restructure the Higher...

Seanad: Interpretation Bill 2000: Committee Stage. (29 Jun 2005)

Brendan Ryan: Maybe section 4 will clarify this but section 27(1) states: "Where an enactment is repealed, the repeal does not...affect any right, privilege, obligation or liability acquired, accrued or incurred under the enactment...". That is a sweeping provision. I accept that section 4 may help this and I may be mistaken in that I did not figure it out. I defy anybody to understand section 4 on a third...