I move amendment No. 52:
In page 25, subsection (1), between lines 29 and 30, to insert the following:
"(c) in section 40, by the substitution of the following for subsection (10):
‘In this section "authorised person" means a person authorised in writing by a local authority for the purposes of this section and includes, except in the case of subsection (5), a member of the Garda Síochána.'.".
This amendment replaces section 40(10) of the Local Government Act, 1994, with a new subsection. It will extend to the Garda the enforcement powers of authorised officers under any local authority by-laws of the 1994 Act. Because of an anomaly in that Act, not all of the enforcement powers available to authorised officers currently apply to the Garda Síochána. They have drawn attention to this anomaly arising from public order situations such as youth drinking and congregating in open spaces. This corrects that anomaly and the duties of those local authority officers will also be enforceable by the Garda Síochána.
