Members may speak as often as they wish. I will not restrict the debate but I ask Members to maintain order. Last week, some amendments were related and speakers tended to go ahead and speak on later sections. I ask people to stay with the section relevant to the amendment.
The primary purpose of the Casual Trading Bill, 1994, is to achieve greater decentralisation, efficiency and flexibility in the regulation of casual trading by local authorities than is currently possible under the less flexible regime provided for by the Casual Trading Act, 1980. The proposed measures are based on a major review of the Casual Trading Act, 1980, undertaken by the Department of Enterprise and Employment. In the course of this review, views and observations were received from local authorities, Government Departments, the Irish Hardware Association, Casual Traders Association and the Dublin City Centre Business Association.
The review clearly indicated that there are a number of deficiencies in the 1980 Act which need to be addressed to achieve better regulation of casual trading by local authorities and the Garda Síochána. The 1980 Casual Trading Act applies to selling goods retail on a street, road or market square, footpath, roadside and any other place to which the public have access as a right and any place which the local authority sets aside as a casual trading area.
The principal reforms proposed by the Bill are to devolve the licensing function from the Minister for Enterprise and Employment to the local authorities and to provide for tax clearance and social welfare requirements with respect to the issue of licences; to provide for the use of by-laws by local authorities as a means of regulating and controlling casual trading thus facilitating greater flexibility and efficiency and regulating casual trading; to limit the list of casual trading activities excluded from the scope of the regulation Act under the 1980 Act; to provide for tax clearance requirements with regard to the issue of casual trading licences and to effect general improvement in the enforcement of casual trading legislation.
The Bill, on the basis of the amendments tabled by the Minister for Enterprise and Employment, also proposes to amend the Occasional Trading Act, 1979, to introduce identical requirements in respect of tax clearance on social welfare, penalties and the Minister's power by regulations to amend the classes of trading which can be exempt from the 1979 Act. The Bill proposes to repeal the 1980 Act and to make the appropriate transitional provisions.
Prior to the consideration of Committee Stage of this Bill it should be noted that in the addition to the Minister for Enterprise and Employment the following Deputies have tabled amendments: Deputies Bruton, Quill, Rabbitte, Gregory and Costello. The title of the Bill is the Casual Trading Bill, 1994. Amendment No. 39 in the name of Deputy Bruton is incorrectly listed as an amendment to page 7. It is in fact an amendment to page 8 of the Bill.