John Dardis (Progressive Democrats)

Private bodies have obligations, but one cannot institutionalise within the legislation moral obligations for public or private bodies. As the Minister of State noted, the scope of the Bill is already very wide. Under section 2(1)(h), a public body can mean:

a person, body or organisation (other than the Defence Forces) established-

(i) by or under any enactment (other than the Companies Acts 1963 to 2003), or

(ii) under the Companies Acts 1963 to 2003, in pursuance of powers conferred by or under another enactment, and financed wholly or partly, whether directly or indirectly, by means of moneys provided, or loans made or guaranteed, by a Minister of the Government or shares held by or on behalf of a Minister of the Government;

That is very wide in its scope. The only bodies excluded are purely private bodies — almost the local corner shops.

It is almost as if we are treating this Bill in isolation from all other legislation. A corpus of legislation already exists with regard to building regulations, equality, equal status and so on. That legislation is there for support, and to ensure that private bodies act in a responsible and correct manner, apart from their moral obligation which we hope they would take on board. The scope of the Bill is already very broad and it would not add a great deal to incorporate that extra dimension. It is laudable to try to achieve it, but it cannot be achieved within the scope of this Bill. If the issue is not already dealt with — I suggest it is — by the other legislation supporting the Bill, there may be a case for extending the scope of the surrounding support legislation.