Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

As I mentioned, there is an issue with the internal inconsistency of the Bill as it came to us from the Dáil. Government amendment No. 57 which we have just passed was a way for the Government to seek to address that inconsistency. I go back to look at the problem with the Bill that is being resolved by amendment No. 57. It is a problem with the way section 10 which concerns the composition of the commission came to us. Until now, there was an issue with a crucial part of the Bill, section 10(1)(g). It refers to:

a member, being a person who is—(i) a lay person, and

(ii) a member of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, nominated by that Commission under section 12...

It had not been included within section 18, the section which concerns a member of the commission who ceases to hold office. While I see amendment No. 57 as a tidying up exercise, we sought to engage in our own tidying up exercise with amendment No. 58 which was discussed with amendments Nos. 13 to 23, inclusive, to section 10. The Acting Chairman said it could not be moved because amendment No. 57 had been passed. Now that it has been passed, the provision has been tidied up and there is now greater consistency between sections 10 and 18. Will the Minister say how precisely the procedure will be operated when a member of the commission resigns and a casual vacancy results? To be blunt, there is an issue with logistics and how the procedure will be run in practice. If there is a casual vacancy for a very short period towards the end of a member's term of office, there will be a difficulty in how sections 10 and 18 correlate or may be read together, given that section 10 includes such a range of procedures for the appointment of members of the commission. How will it work in practice, specifically, as Senator Michael McDowell pointed out, when a member's term of office is close to termination? There will clearly be a casual vacancy. Will it have to be filled at that point? Will the commission be capable of functioning while there is a casual vacancy? Section 18(2) states "the casual vacancy so occasioned shall be filled" and "the person appointed under this subsection shall hold office for that period of the term of office of the member who occasioned the casual vacancy concerned that remains unexpired at the date of his or her appointment". It begs the question of whether the commission will then cease to be capable of functioning for the period in which the casual vacancy remains unfilled. How practical is this?