I move the following motion which stands in my name:—
(1) That a Select Committee, to be nominated by the Committee of Selection, be appointed to consider every Statutory Instrument laid, or laid in draft before Seanad Éireann, in pursuance of a statutory requirement with a view to determining whether the special attention of Seanad Éireann should be drawn to it on any of the following grounds:—
(i) That it imposes a charge on the public revenues or contains provisions requiring payments to be made to the Exchequer or any Government Department or to any local or public authority in consideration of any licence or consent, or of any services to be rendered, or prescribes the amount of any such charge or payments;
(ii) that it is made in pursuance of any enactment containing specicific provisions excluding it from challenge in the courts either at all times or after the expiration of a specified period;
(iii) that it appears to make some unusual or unexpected use of the powers conferred by the Statute under which it is made;
(iv) that it purports to have retrospective effect where the parent Statute confers no express authority so to provide;
(v) that there appears to have been unjustifiable delay either in the laying of it before Seanad Éireann or in its publication;
(vi) that for any special reason its form or purport calls for elucidation.
(2) That the Select Committee consist of nine members of whom three shall form a quorum.
(3) That the Select Committee have power to report from time to time and to require any Government Department concerned to submit a memorandum explaining any Statutory Instrument which may be under their consideration or to depute a representative to appear before them as a witness for the purpose of explaining any such Statutory Instrument.
(4) That it be the duty of the Committee before reporting that the special attention of Seanad Éireann should be drawn to any Statutory Instrument to afford to any Government Department concerned therewith an opportunity of furnishing orally or in writing such explanations as the Department may think fit and the Select Committee have power to report to Seanad Éireann from time to time, any memoranda submitted or other evidence given to them by any Government Department in explanation of any Statutory Instrument.
This is the same committee which was appointed in 1948 and 1951. The amendment put in by Senator Miss Davidson is based, I think, on a slight misunderstanding because she is proposing the reinsertion of a paragraph that was in the original resolution in 1948 and 1951. It is understood, I am informed by the Clerk of the Seanad, that when a committee of this kind is set up, the requisite staff is always allocated to it automatically, and therefore there is no necessity for this amendment though I am quite prepared to accept it, if necessary. I am advised, however, by the Clerk of the Seanad and the appropriate officials that the amendment is unnecessary. Therefore, I am moving the motion as it stands.
