Barry Ward (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I regret to say that I agree with Senator McDowell. Amendment No. 20, in my name, has been mentioned. I emailed my amendments to the Bills Office on Wednesday night because they had to be in before midday yesterday. This means it was possible for the Minister to bring this amendment before the Dáil. I do not understand why the definition is not in section 1. I do not understand why the definition in section 3 is so convoluted and complicated given that there is a perfectly functional, much simpler and tried-and-tested definition that has not been challenged in the courts in section 151(5) of the Broadcasting Act 2009. That section deals with offences under section 148, which essentially involves television licence offences, and defines an occupier as being "a person who as owner, tenant or otherwise is in occupation, whether solely, jointly or severally, of the premises." It does exactly what it says on the tin, is what we all understand an occupier to be and avoids all of the issues discussed by Senator McDowell. I will not labour it beyond that but one of the things that is pervasive throughout this legislation is that it seeks to be more verbose, complex and wordy than it ever needed to be to get the job done.