Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

Again, I commend Senator Bannon on his punctilious observations, particularly on punctuation points. Fowler could not have done better. The 45 amendments tabled by Senator Bannon are of a minor technical nature and are to do with drafting style. Many of these issues have been discussed over the years, but I do not think it would be wise to amend a Bill that is as complex as this one simply on issues of drafting style. Amendments Nos. 82 and 104 are Government amendments to make minor textual corrections that have no impact on the substance of the Bill but are necessary to correct errors detected since the Bill was published.

On the points made by Senator Bannon, I appreciate that his intentions are probably to improve the language used in the Bill. However, the Government must take the advice of the Parliamentary Counsel on the best way to express certain ideas and make them legally watertight. For example, in five or six of his amendments, Senator Bannon proposes the insertion of a comma. Quite a number of the amendments insert a comma, and there is nothing wrong with that in so far as when we use language, we often use commas and other punctuation. However, the problem with accepting those amendments would be that it would make some of the sentences legally less watertight than the Parliamentary Counsel would wish, and certainly than we would wish when enacting legislation. We may think that something is more easily understood by putting in punctuation, for example, but we may not appreciate that a loophole is left that could lead to confusion at best, and could in fact lead to legal challenge. With some of the amendments, when commas were inserted, I could understand the logic of it in terms of the spoken language but in terms of making the language legally watertight the advice is, sadly, to dispense with the commas and the other changes. I hope Senator Bannon understands that I am not being difficult but simply taking the advice I have received. I am not in a position to accept the amendments, well intentioned though they are. Obviously, we are hoping that the House will have no difficulty in accepting amendments Nos. 82 and 104, which are Government amendments.