Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The question is not just best practice and whether the commission will engage in best practice, as it may choose to draw on the precedent of the Referendum Commission of Ireland, or not. The question is best practice in legislation. To put a caveat and a dilution in respect of the question of accessibility is not best practice in legislation. The Minister of State referred to where there is a different organisational context, and the fact is that there is a different context. I made clear two of the contexts, one being the recognition of Irish Sign Language as a language in the State, the other being the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with a Disability. Those are two very clear changes in the context from previous legislation and they should have been reflected in the wording of this legislation. I do not believe it is sufficient to say we are following what we did before. The context and the responsibilities have changed. The rights of persons have changed and I do not think we should have legislation which creates an ambiguity around "as far as practicable", especially bearing in mind that there are other places in legislation where we talk about value for money. Value for money would not be a measure that should be counted in a practical assessment about the provision of access to information.

I appreciate that the reports will be maintained. In regard to amendment No. 12, given that it was mentioned that the Web Accessibility Directive is law and that this was an attempt to underscore that, I will not press it, but I will be pressing a number of the other amendments.