Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

These are technical amendments and are proposed because the schedule as drafted does not fully reflect the purpose of section 2(5) whose intention and meaning is that all persons who held an office post before 1 April 2004 will not fall within the category of new entrant. This would include persons appointed as attorneys general who were not Members of the Houses of the Oireachtas at the time they held office. The current wording does not fully reflect the purpose of the section. That text would have the effect that a former Attorney General re-appointed as Attorney General in the future without being a Member of the Houses on either occasion would be treated as a new entrant.