Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)

This group relates to section 23 of the Bill, which provides that the authority shall prepare and publish guidelines on the licensing regime established under Part 2. The section establishes requirements for broad public consultation on the draft guidelines and the submission of written representations to the authority for consideration prior to finalisation and formal publication.

Amendment No. 3 provides that the authority must submit a draft of the guidelines to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport for its opinion, which must be submitted to the authority within one month. Amendments Nos. 4 and 5 are consequential in that they provide that the authority must consider the opinion of the committee and set out a definition of the committee, respectively. This latter definition is the same as that used in section 12(11)(d) of the Dublin Transport Authority Act 2008. This arose largely from a Dáil debate expressing a desire to give specific recognition to the Oireachtas joint committees and the role they play in transport affairs.