David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. I also give a warm welcome to Deputy Fitzgerald, who as Minister was centrally involved in this very detailed legislation, and the Minister of State, Deputy Stanton.

I have a couple of technical points I would like to make. These amendments, particularly amendment No. 1, do clarify the situation and anything that clarifies the situation is very welcome so I will certainly be supporting these amendments. However, I think Members will have a certain technical difficulty in dealing with these amendments for the following reason. What we have is the Bill as passed by the Dáil so it is different to the one that was originally presented to the Seanad. That is fair enough. The text of amendment No. 3 is, "In page 9, line 21, "and committed" deleted." However, line 21 just refers to subsections 2 and 3 of section 29. I do not have the slightest idea where "and committed" could possibly fit in so I am at a loss as to how to deal with this amendment. Amendment No. 8 just says, "In page 18, lines 21 to 24 deleted." The same is true of amendments Nos. 9 and 12 and a whole lot more. Because we have the Bill as passed by the Dáil, they are already deleted, as I understand it, so we do not actually know where they fit in. I am not sure what the way around this is.