That is under active consideration, but I have to underline that the full buy-in of the Department of Justice is required. We are at the Department's mercy as to whether that can be achieved before the Bill passes through the stages in the Seanad.

I rise to express sympathy, on my behalf and on that of the Fine Gael organisation in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown and my predecessor Olivia Mitchell, to the Bruton family on the sad passing of John. I express that sympathy to Finola, the children, our dear colleague and friend Richard and Mary, who is someone I knew before I knew the other Brutons. She was my wife's employer for a long time in Blackrock and they taught together. I will pick up on the theme on which the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, and so many ot…

I am extremely grateful to Senator Conway for raising this issue. He is absolutely right in saying that today is a great day. There is not a Member of these Houses who has not been calling for a proper deposit return scheme for years. It has been the subject of motions at every political party's conferences, Ard-Fheiseanna and youth conferences for years. It seemed like a common-sense thing but it sadly took too long to bring in. However, it is in now. Today is a good day. It is a good day for the environment and f…

I really appreciate that. I apologise to Senator Conway that I forgot to address the point he made on community systems and local authorities in my initial response. It is a fantastic idea. I will take it to the Minister of State with responsibility for local government, Deputy Kieran O'Donnell. I am more than happy to engage with community groups or local authorities around the country to fill the gaps because, at the end of the day, we will need a lot more than 18,000 return vending machines. In the case of the a…

I thank Senator Ward for placing these amendments and thank Senator Horkan for speaking to them. As laid out by Senator Ward, amendments Nos. 1, 2 and 5 propose a revised wording of section 6B of the Act which seeks to overturn the future designation of coroners as civil servants. The Minister is satisfied that there is no inconsistency between the classification of coroners as civil servants of the State and the requirement for coroners to maintain full independence in the performance of their statutory functions.…

Some of that is covered in the next section in the context of amendment No. 3 and I am happy to address it when we get to that point. If there is anything else outstanding, the Minister, Deputy McEntee, has undertaken to convey that to the House. She cannot be here today for very serious personal reasons.

Amendment No. 3 proposed by Senator Ward seeks to allow the Minister to review fixed-term appointments to the Dublin district on an indefinite basis and without prescribed criteria for such renewals. The Minister's legal advice to date has counselled against the indefinite, successive renewal of coroner positions. Nevertheless, I emphasise that the requirement to retain high-calibre individuals in a highly specialised role is recognised and, with this in mind, the appropriate tenure provisions applicable for future…

As I said in my response, the Minister's legal advisers have advised against the indefinite, successive renewal of coroner positions. It is deemed better to introduce fixed terms.

I thank the Senator for this amendment, which proposes to set out ineligibility criteria in the new section 14A. The proposed amendment refers to the ability of the Minister to remove a coroner from office, notwithstanding that the revised section 15 of the principal Act deals comprehensively with removal from positions. The proposed amendment furthermore appears to confer a discretion on the Minister to appoint individuals to an office, notwithstanding their ineligibility under section 14A. It should be noted that…

I thank Senators for their contributions. I will relay the comments and observations made by Senators Ward and Horkan to the relevant Ministers and officials.

I move amendment No. 1: In page 8, between lines 7 and 8, to insert the following: “ “approved seasonal employer” has the meaning assigned to it by section 10(5) ; “approved seasonal employer certificate” has the meaning assigned to it by section 10(6) ; “seasonally recurrent employment” means an employment that relates to a certain time of the year or seasonal conditions;”. I thank the Chief Whip for her time and co-operation on this legislation. I am pleased to have the opportunity to bring forward Report Stage a…

I will try to address the points raised and speak specifically to the amendments in the names of Deputies O'Reilly and Nash. We are discussing seasonal employment permits. The first thing to point out is that Ireland is an outlier internationally in not having them at this stage. We are one of few European Union countries, if not the only one, without them. We believe introducing them is a good thing. I understand the concerns of the Deputies which they also raised on Committee Stage. I would like to provide some c…

I will come back in later.

On Deputy Stanton's point, it is the policy position of this Department that we agree with the points the Deputy has made. We are in discussion with the Department of Justice to try to move towards that. We received quite a number of correspondence and it relates to the points made by Deputy Creed on the entitlements of family members. There will be engagement going on between my Department, the Department of Justice and the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. While we have…

The uplift only goes to new work permits and renewals. Anyone who has renewed or has a new work permit will experience the uplift.

I move amendment No. 3: In page 12, line 20, to delete “ paragraph (b) ” and substitute “ paragraphs (b) and (c) ”.

I move amendment No. 4: In page 12, lines 21 and 22, to delete “shall not be” and substitute “shall be not”. These amendments are very straightforward. They are technical amendments, some deleting or adding a word or clarifying some small typographical mistakes, including cross-references. They are aimed at tidying up the Bill and are not policy-driven.

I move amendment No. 5: In page 12, to delete line 29.

I move amendment No. 6: In page 13, line 7, to delete "insurer." and substitute the following: "insurer, or (c) in respect of a seasonal employment permit, the total amount of— (i) the salary that is paid to a foreign national, the hourly rate of which shall be not less than the national minimum hourly rate of pay or, where appropriate to the employment in respect of which the application is made, the hourly rate referred to in paragraph (b) of the definition of "standard working week remuneration", (ii) any paymen…

I acknowledge the point made by the Deputy on Committee Stage and again just now. While I take on board her concerns, my position is no different than that of my predecessor, Deputy English. As discussed on Committee Stage, the amendment proposes to delete section 4, which would remove the legislative basis for the Minister to make regulations on operational matters to enable the smooth functioning of the permits system. This would negatively affect the agility required under the 2018 review of economic migration p…