Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

This amendment is to section 3 which states, "Where a person is charged with an offence under subsection (2), it is a defence to the charge for him or her to show that the vehicle was being driven on the occasion in question by another person and that such driving was unauthorised." It is essentially to allow somebody to offer the defence that his or her car had been stolen by somebody else. My understanding is that what Senator wants to do is to avoid people using this as an excuse by requiring them to report to the Garda that their car has been stolen. I would like to accept the amendment, but I cannot because it would create another loophole. If somebody's car was stolen while he or she was away or at work, or even from the garage and the person did not know, he or she would obviously not be able to inform the Garda and even if it was stolen, he or she would have no defence.