I move the following amendment.
New section. Before Section 15 to insert a new section as follows:—
15.—This Act shall not apply in relation to public dancing carried on in any recreation room managed or conducted under the authority of the Minister for Defence or of the Commissioner of the Gárda Síochána."
The amendment exempts from the scope of this Bill recreation rooms conducted under the authority of the Minister for Defence or the Commissioner of the Gárda Síochána. As regards military recreation rooms the Department of Defence state that they propose to bring in a permanent Defence Forces Bill which will exempt such rooms from any regulations relating to public dances, and it is desirable that there should be reciprocal provisions included in the present Bill as regards the Gárda Síochána. There is a dance hall at the Depôt in which the recruits and their friends occasionally hold ceilidhthe, and it would be absurd if the Gárda Síochána, which is the enforcing authority, had to obtain licences for their own hall. I am informed the Minister cannot be here for some time as he is engaged in the other House.