I move amendment No. 1:
In page 5, line 26, after "form" to insert ", and includes a thing".
Commissions of Investigation Bill 2003: Report Stage.
Is the amendment agreed to?
Will the Minister explain why not?
If the Deputy can explain why it is being moved, I will explain why I will not accept it.
I support Deputy Costello's amendment. He must have anticipated that the Bill would not be dealt with before 7 p.m. I would not like his amendments not to be considered.
The amendment was moved.
Yes.
I will elaborate on why I am disinclined to accept the amendment. An official amendment I tabled on Committee Stage introduced significant flexibility in how the term "document" is to be interpreted. Deputy Costello's amendment, which has been moved by his colleague, introduces new elements that are not relevant. It is not necessary in view of my previous official amendment, which deleted "means" and substituted "includes". Under these circumstances, it is not necessary to accept the Deputy's amendment.
I recollect the points raised by Deputy Costello on Committee Stage. He was of the view that the Bill would be improved and more all-embracing if the amendment he proposes is accepted. I recollect that he was not prepared to go to the wall on the issue on Committee Stage and, on that basis, it would not be over-presumptuous to suggest that he would not press this amendment to a vote.
Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
I move amendment No. 2:
In page 6, line 14, to delete "any" and substitute "a director or any other".
The subsection in question here deals with a document in the power of a body corporate or an unincorporated body. It is a technical amendment that Deputy Costello felt would improve the Bill.
For the purposes of the Act, section 2(2) provides that a document in the power of a body corporate or an unincorporated body of any kind is considered in the absence of evidence to the contrary to be also in the power or possession of any individual who, because of his or her functions or position within the body corporate or unincorporated body, as the case may be, can reasonably be expected to have control over the document.
Deputy Costello's amendment proposes to delete "any" and substitute "a director or any other". The term "any individual" encompasses "any director". Since the phrase applies to both bodies corporate and bodies unincorporated it is sufficiently wide as it stands. It would add no weight to the definition to specifically mention directors because other individuals, because of their functions or position within the body corporate, might reasonably be expected to have control over the document. The definition as it stands is a broad, generic definition of the kind of person expected to be in possession of the relevant documents. It would cover a director with control over the documents of the body corporate, if it were a body corporate.
I thank Deputy Jim O'Keeffe for standing in the breach. The purpose of my amendment is to direct attention to the director because the director is the person specifically responsible with regard to a body corporate. Rather than having a general reference to those responsible, it should be noted that the director is responsible in the first instance.
Debate adjourned.