Paul Coghlan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The grouping of amendments is also sometimes necessary to protect the interests of a Senator whose later amendment might not be open to debate by reason of a decision on an earlier amendment, for example, in the case of physical alternatives. Groupings are never a matter for formal decision by the House. Amendments are grouped for a variety of reasons, for example, where an amendment is consequential on another; where amendments are physical alternatives to one another, that is, they seek to amend the same text within the Bill such that the agreement of one amendment would necessarily preclude the moving of another; where amendments are logical alternatives to one another; where amendments are cognate, that is, they embody the same principle where they are offered to different parts of the Bill; and where amendments are similar, that is, they effect the same or similar purposes. Ultimately, amendments are grouped in the interests of an efficient and productive debate and the Chair exercises such latitudes as are available to him or her with those principles in mind.