Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 106, between lines 21 and 22, to insert the following: "Amendment of section 21 of Act of 2014

28.Section 21 of the Act of 2014 is amended by the insertion of the following subsection:

"(2) When considering the provision of moneys to be provided to the Commission, the Minister may give consideration to the additional powers the Commission may have undertaken, or been provided with, in a given year, and the increased expenses the Commission may have incurred as a result.".".

I thank the Acting Chair for his guidance. As the Minister of State knows, the two amendments are similar in nature. They are very similar to what was moved by my colleague, Deputy O'Reilly, in the Dáil. The purposes of the amendments are broadly similar. They recognise the new powers that will be conferred on the commission on passing the legislation. This will mean the workload will increase. The concern is that unless money is provided to reflect the increased workload important work will not be done, to the point that it would affect the organisation's ability to carry out necessary functions. We have tabled the amendments because we need to have a belt, braces and baler twine approach to ensure the commission has all of the resources it needs. New powers are welcome but they are effectively useless without the capacity of the organisation to back it up. The two amendments are broadly similar and I ask the Minister of State to reflect on both in his contribution.