Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

These are very technical amendments, as the Senator rightly acknowledges. They relate to the doctrine of judicial notice, which is that branch of the law of evidence that says to the court: "What can we know without having to have it proved before us?". For example, the Act of the Oireachtas has to be proved by simply handing in a Stationery Office copy. There are many wonderful branches of the law about whether judges should know the different types of animal that are in a zoo, for example, or whether Seanad Éireann has 60 Members or whether the boundary of County Louth begins at Carrickallan when one crosses the land frontier from Northern Ireland. In the present context, our legal advice is that the phrase used in the subsections concerned – I know there are some cognate amendments tabled by Senator Norris in respect of it – is the correct way of putting this matter.

The Minister was receptive in the other House to looking at this issue again, but having discussed the matter with the Attorney General, the legal advice was strongly that the words which the amendments seek to delete should remain in all three subsections and that they provide a greater accuracy in relation to the matters of which a court should take notice, namely that the court had jurisdiction.

Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.