Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I will speak to the note here as well. I am not in a position to support the Seanad amendment to Dáil amendment No. 193. While the proposed amendment is the same as the first part of Dáil amendment No. 193 regarding an amendment to section 19A of the Local Government Act 2001, it removes the important second part of the Dáil amendment. The precise Dáil amendments proposed to section 19A are to clarify, in the first instance, that the temporary substitute fulfils the functions of a councillor causing a temporary absence for the period of the absence. It clarifies also that a councillor who has caused a temporary absence and sought a temporary substitute could not continue to exercise their function of a councillor during the period of that absence. This is also to avoid a situation arising where the both the councillor who has caused a temporary absence and the temporary substitute could try to exercise the same function. I have given the example of a vote in the Seanad elections, which is where the requirement for these clarifying amendments first arose to ensure that only one vote could be exercised. I am not in a position to support this amendment.