Frank Fahey (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

It lasts for a maximum of three years. The exemption normally applies to people who are being trained under sheltered employment conditions. Under section 35 of the Employment Equality Act, people with disabilities will be entitled to the same minimum wage as anyone else.

While well intentioned, I am concerned that amendment No. 56 may not achieve the purposes for which it is drafted. Provisions of this nature are best avoided unless they bring beneficial clarity to the interpretation of the relevant enactments. Perhaps I should outline my concerns in regard to each element of the amendment.

The proposed amendment has three elements. The first element would require that nothing in the Act should be taken to contravene or constitute any alteration to the rights and protections prescribed in the Equal Status Acts 2000 to 2004. Section 14 of the Equal Status Act 2000 already provides that nothing in that Act shall be construed as prohibiting the taking of any action that is required by or under any enactment. As a result, the positive measures contained in this Bill, which amount to statutory obligations on public bodies, will be applicable, even though less onerous anti-discrimination provisions are contained in the Equal Status Acts 2000 to 2004.

An important point to note in regard to the provisions concerning the Employment Equality Acts 1998 to 2004 is that the content of the legislation is not directly germane to the Bill, except for section 33. The section contains an exclusion saying that nothing in the legislation shall render unlawful positive employment measures for people, including people with disabilities. The Bill takes up on that provision and requires public bodies to adopt the employment measures for people with disabilities.

On the third element of the amendments relating to human rights legislation, section 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights Act places an obligation on every organ of the State, as defined in section 1 of the Act, to perform its functions in a manner compatible with the State's obligations under the convention. Section 4 of the Act requires that all statutory provisions or rules of law enforced before or after the commencement of the Act must be interpreted and applied in a manner which is compatible with the State's obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights. It is clear from the European Convention on Human Rights Act 2003 that every court, in considering or interpreting any section of any Act, any statutory instrument or rule of common law, must seek to do so in a manner which is compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms unless it is impossible to do so. In circumstances where it is not possible to interpret the statute, statutory instrument or rule of law concerned in a manner which is compatible with the convention, provision is made in section 5 for the superior courts to make a declaration of incompatibility which will be laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas.

In view of these provisions, I see no advantage in including the third element of the proposed amendment in the Bill. I do not propose to accept the amendment.