I move amendment No. 1:
In page 2, line 22, to delete "(Amendment)".
Insurance (Amendment) Bill, 1982: Committee and Final Stages.
Section 1 agreed to.
SECTION 2.
By way of clarification, the Minister asks that the word in brackets "Amendment" be deleted. While I have no objection at all if one takes out the word "Amendment" from that section, would it not also be appropriate that one would remove the word from the Title of the Bill? Also on the front of the document there is reference to amendment of an Act. Indeed, on the last page also the same word, "Amendment" appears in brackets again. It might be somewhat unusual to have the word "Amendment" taken out and still have the thing referring to "as initiated". Therefore its drafting might require further attention.
This is an amendment put forward as a result of a suggestion of the parliamentary draftsman. As the Deputy will appreciate, the initial format in which the Bill was presented to the Dáil could not be changed until, hopefully, this amendment was passed. The suggestions the Deputy has made will be incorporated in the final drafting.
I take it that the amended version will now read — Insurance Act, 1982. I note on page 2 it is cited that this is an Act to amend the Insurance Acts, 1909 to 1981. How can one amend any of those Acts unless it is an amendment to the Act when this is a new Act in its entirely? It would seem incongruous to me to do it this way particularly when the first section concerns an amendment of section 2 of the Insurance Act of 1953, and there have been quite a number of amendments of various Acts down the years, including section 2 of the Insurance Act, 1969.
The Minister did suggest at some stage that section 2 of the Insurance Act, 1969, did allow for insurance credit for design and planning services. This is purely a further amendment of those Acts and it could not be regarded as the Principal Act. Consequently, I am somewhat at a loss to understand whether we might again find that this matter will not be legally proper.
Perhaps I had better read out the advice of the parliamentary draftsman. The Deputy will appreciate that the proposed amendment does not affect the actual content of the Bill — it is purely a technical amendment in regard to which one normally accepts the advice of the parliamentary draftsman. The note I have states:
The word "Amendment" has been used in the Short Title of only one previous Insurance Act, that of 1978. The Parliamentary Draftsman's Office has now instructed that the use of the word "Amendment" in the 1978 Act should be treated as an exception and the practice of using the Short Title "Insurance Act, 19—" without the word "Amendment" should be continued.
Would that not indicate that this Bill, as amended, would be regarded as a Principal Act in the same way as the Insurance Acts 1909 to 1981?
Yes, but they would be covering different subject matters.
If that be the case would it not be in conflict with section 1, subject to amendments to the 1950 Act? You would have an amendment of another Act which in turn would be an amendment to a Principal Act but which could not be regarded in toto as the Principal Act itself. This is very confused but I would not make any difficulty for the Minister about it so long as it is in accordance with proper drafting procedures and that these words, “amendment” in the front, the back and in the other three locations in the Bill will be adjusted accordingly.
To be honest with the Deputy, if the advice had not come from the parliamentary draftsman I would not have submitted the amendment. It is purely acting in response to advice received from the parliamentary draftsman.
There might be difficulty when this matter will come to be dealt with by the courts subsequently. If it could not be shown that this wording is adequate to deal with a considerable amount of expenditure by the Department, there might be many subsequent difficulties. Perhaps the Minister will assure the House that this drafting will allow this Act to be moved along to the next stage without difficulty.
Amendment put and agreed to.
Section 2, as amended, agreed to.
Title agreed to.
Bill reported with amendment and passed.