Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

Amendment No. 11 is a technical drafting amendment to provide for definitions of the Employment Equality Acts and the Equal Status Act relevant to Part 6 of the Bill. Amendments Nos. 16 to 18, inclusive, insert a new section before section 19 and a new section after section 19. Amendment No. 16 substitutes a new paragraph (a) in section 21(7a) of Equal Status Act, as amended, to correct a drafting error in the existing text. The existing text refers to section 21(7), where the correct reference should be to section 21(6). I presume that is not a matter of any great controversy. Amendment No. 17 is consequent on the acceptance of amendment No. 11 and provides simply for the substitution of the reference to section 25 of the Act of 2000, as amended, for section 25 of the Equal Status Act, as amended. Amendment No. 18 corrects a typographical error, where equality was incorrectly spelled in section 39 of the Equal Status Act. That it is incorrectly spelt has not resulted in the world ceasing to revolve on its axis. Originally it was a typographical error and it has been corrected under the mechanism of this Bill.