Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

Amendment No. 31 inserts a new subsection in section 30 to provide that where a partner in a partnership applies for a licence as an independent contractor, the application will be refused if any of the other partners is under 18 years of age or is an undischarged bankrupt or if the partnership does not comply with any of the requirements of the Bill. Amendment No. 30 is a consequential drafting amendment. The reason for these amendments is that where a partner in a partnership applies for a licence as an independent contractor, he or she will be the only person in the partnership who will be entitled to provide a property management service. It would not be reasonable, therefore, to make a decision about an application on the basis of, for example, the fitness of other persons who will have no role in the provision of the property service.