Michael McCarthy (Labour)

I move amendment No. 7:

In page 8, line 28, to delete "may" and substitute "shall".

The Bill in its Long Title claims to be a Bill for regulating and controlling the use of recreational craft. However, while it permits this to be done, it does not require it to be done and this amendment reflects that. Amendment No. 8 is a drafting amendment. The words "regulating or controlling the operation of craft" might be interpreted to limit in some way the matters that can be dealt with by the by-laws. In any case, there is a grammatical problem with the existing lines six and seven which refer to the operation of craft by local authorities, which is clearly ambiguous. On Committee Stage, the Minister asserted it was necessary to define the scope of the powers but in our view this is not correct as the scope is spelled out later in the actual section itself.

Amendment No. 9 seeks to insert on page 9, between lines 13 to 14 "such other matters as in the opinion of the authority are concerned are ancillary or related to the foregoing matters". This amendment aims to give some flexibility to the Act to ensure the by-laws can be comprehensive. For example, a by-law prohibiting a person from being carried in a pleasure craft which is unlawfully operated might be held to be outside the scope of the requirement that the by-laws regulate the operation of craft. Accordingly, there is a good case for a general "catch-all" clause. This is not to give local authorities carte blanche, but provides some extra flexibility.