We will now deal with the Committee and Remaining Stages of the Royal Hibernian Academy (Amendment of Charter) Bill 2023. This is an unusual debate because there is no Minister here. Senator Ward will deal with the amendment.
The Royal Hibernian Academy (Amendment of Charter) Bill 2023: Committee and Remaining Stages
Sections 1 to 5, inclusive, agreed to.
NEW SECTION
I move amendment No. 1:
In page 4, between lines 37 and 38, to insert the following:
“Amendment of lines 68 and 82 of the Charter of 1861
6. The Charter of 1861 shall be read and construed—
(a) as if the following words were deleted therefrom where the same appear in lines 68, that is to say the words “within the City of Dublin or ten miles thereof.”,
(b) as if the following words were deleted therefrom where the same appear in lines 82, that is to say the words “in the City of Dublin or within ten miles thereof.”.”.
I echo the Acting Chairman's comments that this is unusual legislation insofar as it is a Private Bill that is not sponsored by the Government or any Member of this House per se. It has been brought before the Houses because there is a requirement for the Royal Hibernian Academy to amend its charter and update and modernise it so that it does what the academy needs it to do. Since it is a royal charter but we no longer have a royal to amend it, it comes before the Houses of the Oireachtas. We have not seen a Bill such as this for over 20 years. A number of years ago, we formulated new Standing Orders to deal with this specific eventuality and a number of procedures must be gone through. An ad hoc committee was established to examine this matter and decide whether it was suitable to come before the Houses and a lot of work was done there. I pay tribute to Mr. Stephen Rigney, who was the clerk to the committee and was fundamental in terms of providing guidance and expertise, and to Mr. Robert Crowley from the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel, who advised the committee on the matter. We also had the benefit of advice from the Royal Hibernian Academy itself on what it needed the charter to do and why it needed to make these changes. This Bill makes those changes to the charter.
The RHA is a very important cultural institution in this State. Since the Georgian period, it has been a powerhouse of promoting art and artists. It is led by artists as well. People will be familiar with the gallery on Ely Place. It is a wonderful place to go to view and buy art. Credit is due to the RHA for the work it does on promoting, fostering and supporting art and artists.
I was delighted and privileged to chair the aforementioned ad hoc committee that was set up. I am also very pleased to propose the amendment that is before the House today. Ideally, there would not have been an amendment but somebody with better eyes than mine spotted that in the text of the Bill, which changes the charter, there was a typographical error and there was not proper consideration of it.
The charter is what is being amended by this Bill but it is not part of the Bill itself. The charter is an ancient document. It is hundreds of years old so we do not have a copy of it in the Bill. It probably should be part of the explanatory memorandum so people can see it. Members of the committee had the benefit of seeing it so we could understand exactly what was being changed. The difficulty with the way the Bill was phrased initially was that it did not account for certain things. This amendment amends section 6 of the Bill and provides for a change to the charter. There was a difference in text used, whether it was within Dublin city or within ten miles of Dublin city. What we are proposing to do here is to amend the charter so that it says "within the City of Dublin or within ten miles of the City of Dublin" so that it creates a clearer geographical area and corrects what was an oversight in the original drafting. I am pleased to propose this sensible amendment which was recommended by the committee. We wanted to make sure that when the charter is amended by this legislation, it will work for the RHA and do what the academy needs it to do and that there is no ambiguity about it. I am grateful to all of the people who guided us through the process and to members of the committee from both Houses who attended the meetings and helped to form the Bill that is before the House today.
Amendment agreed to.
Section 6, as amended, agreed to.
Section 7 agreed to.
Preamble agreed to.
Title agreed to.
Bill reported with amendment, received for final consideration and passed.
That concludes business. I thank Senators for their co-operation. When it is proposed to sit again?
Next Tuesday at 11 a.m.
Is that agreed? Agreed.
Cuireadh an Seanad ar athló ar 11.56 a.m. go dtí 11 a.m., Dé Máirt, an 5 Nollaig 2023.
The Seanad adjourned at 11.56 a.m. until 11 a.m. on Tuesday, 5 December 2023.