Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)

This amendment provides that section 7 of the Official Languages Act 2003 will not apply to this Bill. Section 7 of the Act mentioned states that, as soon as may be after the enactment of any Act of the Oireachtas, the text thereof shall be printed and published in each of the official languages simultaneously. I must be honest with Senators in this regard. Owing to the large number of Committee Stage amendments made in the Dáil, it is expected the Irish translation of this Bill, when enacted, will not be available for a further month. In the light of this, the amendment provides that the English version of the Bill, when enacted, will be printed and published, with the Irish version being made available as soon as the translation is completed. This will ensure the Bill, when enacted, will be available to the public. I acknowledge that, ideally, both versions should be available immediately, but we want to have the Bill available to the public as soon as possible. The Irish language version will be available as soon as is practically possible.