Frank Fahey (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

This amendment is opposed. Subsection (6) provides that "disturbance" shall be construed in accordance with the treaty of accession. Annex 6 of the treaty of accession provides for the possibility, up to the end of the seventh year following accession, of labour market access being suspended when a member state undergoes or foresees disturbances in its labour market which could seriously threaten the standard of living or level of employment in a given region or occupation.

The word "significant" contained in this amendment is not clarified, nor is it referred to anywhere in the treaty of accession in respect of a labour market disturbance. To introduce it here would not only be unnecessary it would also mean straying from the provisions of the accession treaty in which section 3 of the Bill is grounded. The Senators who tabled this amendment are perhaps concerned that an order reintroducing the need for employment permits should be made only under subsection (3) of this section where the threat to the labour market was a significant and real one. The above should reassure them that this is not the case.