Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

The Government amendment and that of the Labour Party to section 4 is to ensure that a person who commits an offence under the Act enacted on the day on which this part of the Bill comes into operation will be liable on summary conviction to a class A fine. Similar amendments to sections 5, 6, 7 and 8 will ensure that in the same circumstances, a person will be liable to the other classes, B, C, D and E.

These amendments arise from an amendment tabled by the Labour Party in the Dáil and repeated here today. I accepted a number of amendments from that party in the Dáil and in the case of those I was not in a position to accept, I arranged further discussions with the drafter of the Bill in the light of the further points raised and these amendments fall into that category. I thank the Labour Party for bringing this to my attention and I am happy to introduce these amendments that deal with the situation.