Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

Amendments Nos. 2 and 23 are technical in nature. It is practice, in drafting legislation, that where there is a reference to another enactment on more than one occasion, a definition of that enactment is included in the interpretation schedule and the enactment is thereafter referred to by its shorter title. This is the effect of amendments Nos. 2 and 23.

Amendment No. 19 replaces the current text of section 13(1) of the Bill. It specifically provides for the prohibition - contained in the directive - on an employment agency charging a fee to an agency worker following the completion of his or her assignment with a hirer after which he of she is offered direct employment with the hirer. Amendment No. 20 clarifies that the new provision inserted by amendment No. 19 is in addition to, not in substitution for, the separate and distinct prohibition contained in section 7(2) of the Employment Agency Act 1971. The latter provides that it is unlawful for an employment agency to charge an individual a fee - commonly referred to as a "placement fee" - for facilitating the introduction of that individual to a third party who will hire him or her on a temporary assignment. Amendments Nos. 19 and 20 clarify that fees cannot be charged at the beginning or the end of a placement where a person is being recruited on a permanent basis.