James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Group 7 includes amendments Nos. 29 to 35, inclusive. This is a series of technical amendments to Schedules 1 and 2 to the Bill. Amendment No. 29 updates Schedule 1 to reflect changes made to section 4. That section is now amended and provides that where an offence of perjury is committed under older enactments, which are set out in Schedule 1, the offender shall be liable to be proceeded against under this new Act. Similarly, the Schedule is amended so that references to perjury and subornation of perjury, which are now set out in the new Schedule 2, are to be construed in accordance with their definitions in this proposed Act.

Schedule 3 to the Bill currently provides for amendments to certain older Acts which contain perjury provisions so that they may be consolidated under this proposed Act and have this new statute applied to them. Many of the Schedule 3 amendments delete outdated penalty provisions for false statements in historical legislation so that they may be replaced by the penalties section of this Bill. This combination of the approach taken with section 4 and Schedules 1 and 2 to the Bill provides a more consistent approach so that perjury offences under other, older enactments are subject to the relevant provisions in this Bill.

Amendment No. 30 is a technical amendment which deletes the provision deleting section 2 of the Perjury Act 1791 from Schedule 2. Amendments Nos. 31, 32 and 33 are technical amendments to the text of Schedule 2, pertaining respectively to the Assurance Companies Act 1909, the Checkweighing in Various Industries Act 1919, and the Statutory Declarations Act 1938, to update the reference to this proposed Act in the amending text to provide that the text reads more clearly.Amendment No. 34 deletes the text providing for changes to the Dentists Act 1985 in respect of updating penalties for falsely obtaining registration under that Act. The solution is no longer required or warranted as section 8 was deleted from the Bill for the reasons I outlined earlier.

Amendment No. 35 is a standard amending provision to the Bail Act 1997 in providing that specified serious offences are added to the Schedule to that Act. A serious offence under that Act means an offence with which a person of full capacity and not previously convicted may be punished by a term of imprisonment of five years or by a more severe penalty. Offences under this proposed legislation are, therefore, to be added to the Schedule to the Bail Act.