Fergal Browne (Fine Gael)

I move amendment No. 11:

In page 11, to delete lines 4 and 5 and substitute the following:

"Section 70 of the Act of 2004 is amended—

(1) by the insertion of the following after subsection (1):

(1A)(a) All fines under subsection (1) shall be index-linked to the annual inflation rate as set by the European Central Bank, and such fines shall be altered accordingly on the 1st of January each year, beginning with the 1st of January on the second year after the signature of this Act.

(b) In this section, "European Central Bank" means the organisation established by article 8 of the consolidated (2002) version of the EC Treaty.

(2) in subsection (2) by the insertion of "(4A)," between "(4)," and "(5)".".

This is a repeat amendment which the Fine Gael Party has long been pushing. Its purpose is to index-link fines. Unfortunately, the clock is ticking for all of us and things rapidly go out of date. The Government appears to have a problem with this notion. It took a year for this Bill to advance from Second Stage. I am not sure how long it will take for the Bill to come before the Dáil and be enacted but, more than likely, two years will have elapsed before the legislation is up and running. Accordingly, the provisions will be at least two years out of date from the original publication of the Bill. It makes sense for fines to be index-linked so that they have some bearing on reality. Recently, we witnessed the crazy scenario whereby the legislation governing fireworks dated back to 1845 and the maximum fine for having a firework was £5. That shows how ludicrous the situation can become. To prevent this situation recurring, the Fine Gael Party intends proposing this amendment to all Bills going through this House. It may not be for Senator Leyden to answer this point but the Government should take it into consideration on all Bills.