Tom Parlon (Laois-Offaly, Progressive Democrats)

Section 17 relates to the making of assessments by the commission to determine whether a public service body should be regulated by it. These assessments are set out in a report to the Minister which will contain the commission's recommendations. The commission will assess recruitment practice and make recommendations in line with the standards of probity, merit, equity and fairness required of the commission under the provisions of section 13. Section 17 provides that the report must be laid before each House of the Oireachtas if that recommendation is not acted upon in the manner and time provided for in subsection (3). This is required in order to ensure that Ministers take seriously the recommendations made by the commission. Accordingly, section 17 serves a distinct purpose and it would be inappropriate to tack on the new section proposed in this amendment. The commission is required under section 43(5) to examine and evaluate licence holders to ensure compliance with conditions set out in section 45 on recruitment licences. Both of these provisions adequately address the objectives of amendment No. 6.

There is reference to "good practice" in the Bill. The Office of the Parliamentary Counsel was consulted regarding the use of and the meaning of the term "best practice". That office advised that words and phrases which have recently come into circulation or which are imprecise should be used extremely carefully if their meaning is not fully understood and is still developing. Phrases such as "best practice" should therefore be avoided. For clarity's sake, the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel has advised that it is standard practice to avoid the use of vogue words or phrases.