I move amendment No. 30: In page 19, between lines 9 and 10, to insert the following: “PART 3 REQUESTS FOR REMOTE WORKING ARRANGEMENTS Interpretation ( Part 3 ) 14. (1) In this Part— “Act of 1998” means the Parental Leave Act 1998; “Act of 2015” means the Workplace Relations Act 2015; “adjudication officer” means a person appointed under section 40 of the Act of 2015; “approved remote working arrangement” means a remote working arrangement, the request for which has been approved under section 21(1)(a); “code of pr…

I thank the Deputies for their contributions. Deputies spoke about the process both in terms of the work we have done through committee on the original work-life balance directive and of course the work that was done through the Right to Request Remote Work Bill. I am aware that a very detailed pre-legislative scrutiny, PLS, process was undertaken and the detailed PLS report was published. In regard to the amendments being brought forward today, we are implementing the recommendations of the PLS report. I struggle …

Yes.

A PLS process has been undertaken on the original proposals in terms of the right to request remote working. PLS was also undertaken in terms of the work life balance Bill. The core recommendation from that PLS process was the use of that code of conduct. That is central. There are 20 recommendations and six of them referred to the importance of the code of conduct, and they also referred very clearly to the unacceptability of legislative reasons for refusal. Having taken the guidance of the PLS to do that piece of…

I move amendment No. 31: In page 19, between lines 9 and 10, to insert the following: “PART 4 CODE OF PRACTICE Definitions – Part 4 28. In this Part— “Act of 1998” means the [ Parental Leave Act 1998 ][ ; ] “Commission” means the Workplace Relations Commission; “Minister” means the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. Code of practice 29. (1) The Minister may, following consultation with the Minster for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, give a direction to the Commission requiring the…

I move amendment No. 32: In page 20, between lines 32 and 33, to insert the following: “Amendment of [ Adoption Act 2010 ][ ] 20. The [ Adoption Act 2010 ]is amended in section 100— (a) by the substitution of the following for subsection (5): “(5) Subject to subsection (7), the members present at a meeting called under subsection (4) shall choose one of their number to chair the meeting.”, and (b) by the substitution of the following for subsection (6): “(6) The quorum for a meeting of the Authority is— (a) the cha…

I move amendment No. 33: In page 20, between lines 32 and 33, to insert the following: “Amendment of Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Act 2014 21. The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Act 2014 is amended by the insertion of the following section after section 45: “45A. (1) Subject to section 45, a person who was a member of the staff of the Human Rights Commission and who— (a) prior to the establishment day, ceased employment with the Human Rights Commission, or (b) has a preserved superannuatio…

I move amendment No. 34: In page 21, to delete lines 7 to 9 and substitute the following: “(b) in section 41(7)— (i) by the substitution in paragraph (c)(iii) of “father or other parent” for “father”, (ii) by the substitution in paragraph (g) of “the occurrence of the dispute,” for “the occurrence of the dispute, and”, (iii) by the substitution in paragraph (h) of “the occurrence of the dispute, and” for “the occurrence of the dispute.”, and (iv) by the insertion of the following paragraph after paragraph (g): “(i)…

I move amendment No. 35: In page 21, between lines 9 and 10, to insert the following: “Amendment of Birth Information and Tracing Act 2022 21. The Birth Information and Tracing Act 2022 is amended— (a) in section 5(2), by the insertion of “In this section,” before ‘‘ ‘public body’ ”, (b) in section 25(2), by the insertion of “to section 33A or” after “Without prejudice”, (c) in section 31(2), by the insertion of “to section 33A or” after “Without prejudice”, (d) in section 32(4), by the substitution of “section 33 …

I move amendment No. 36: In page 21, to delete lines 10 to 18.

I thank the Senators for their input. I will respond to Senators Flynn and Warfield in respect of the Bill being rushed and things like that. Senator Seery Kearney spoke about that previously. I do not want to start off in defensive mode but it is important to state that we wished to have the Bill passed in June this year. I had set out my intention to move it rapidly through both Houses at that stage. In the context particularly of debates in the Dáil and on Second Stage in this House, it became clear there were s…

This amendment seeks to replace section 3 of the 2015 Act, which sets out the functional capacity model, with a replacement text on legal capacity. I would argue that this amendment mixes two separate provisions. As the House will be aware, the 2015 Act provides for a presumption of capacity in section 8(2), which deals with the guiding principles. Section 8(7) already requires an intervener to give effect to the relevant person's will and preferences. As such, the provisions proposed by the Senator with regard to …

I thank Senator Black for her amendment. The Senator expressed many of my views on why this is necessary. She is correct that the amendment we brought forward does not create a new power. There is an inherent jurisdiction of the High Court in making decisions but we, in our engagements with the Department of Health, felt it was necessary to signpost to the High Court in order to protect the rights of relevant persons. Work is ongoing in the Department of Health on delivery of dedicated legislation on protection of …

The amendment proposes to create a new subsection under section 8 of the 2015 Act. Section 8 provides the guiding principles which underpin the Act, specifically with regard to making an intervention in respect of a relevant person. The amendment seeks to have the guiding principles interpreted in line with the UN convention, in particular, Article 12 and General Comment 1 of the UNCRPD. As I stated on Committee Stage, while I understand the intention of the amendment, it is vague in nature and lacks the necessary …

This amendment removes the phrase "Act of 2015" from the Bill. It is not a phrase used elsewhere in the Act and, as such, is being replaced by the term "Principal Act".

As the Senator said, this issue was raised by Deputy Sherlock during the debate on this matter in the Dáil and I agreed to look at the issue again. We made a change to section 36 of the principal Act and it now provides for anonymised court reporting by legal professionals. Senator Seery Kearney spoke about this issue in the context of child law reporting and suggested that if there was a desire to create a decision support service reporting process, there would be clear permission to allow it to be used. The amend…

This amendment clarifies the title of the new section being introduced by the Bill. The title will now reflect that this section of the Bill amending the Civil Legal Aid Act 1995 relates to Part 6 of the 2015 Act only. Part 6 of the Act deals with wardship. This is a technical amendment for the purpose of improving the text of the final Act.

The proposed amendment seeks to delete provisions in the Bill that remove treatment decisions from enduring powers of attorney, EPAs. While I note the purpose of the Senator's amendment, I believe the provisions her amendment seeks to delete are important in providing legal clarity. The importance of such legal clarity should not be underestimated. The removal of treatment decisions from EPAs ensures there will be no ambiguity between decisions included in EPAs and those in advanced healthcare directives, AHD. This…

Amendment No. 11 replaces an incorrect word in the amendment of section 73 of the Act. The word "subsection" is being replaced with "subject", which will clarify the meaning of the relevant paragraph. It is a technical amendment that will improve the final text of the Bill.

Amendment No. 12 modifies cross-referencing relating to EPA regulations. The modification will correct a cross-reference in section 79 of the 2015 Act, which is necessary because of the changes previously made to the Bill. It is a technical amendment that will improve the final text of the Bill.