Michael McCarthy (Labour)

I move amendment No. 7:

In page 4, lines 33 and 34, after "payments" to insert "(other than payments discharged under section 2 or payments otherwise not recoverable in law)".

This amendment has been changed somewhat since Committee Stage to clarify our intention in tabling it. There could be many instances in which there are arrears of annuity payments which are not recoverable. Such arrears might be statute barred or have been discharged under section 2 of the Bill. In such cases, arrears should not prevent the issue of a certificate for the purposes of section 5. As the Minister's response on Committee Stage, which I will not repeat, seemed to confuse and misunderstand the amendment, we have tabled it again. We maintain that future payments could not possibly be included as section 5 refers only to payments up to the date of the certificate.