Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 13 February 2024
Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government
Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage
Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source
I appreciate that, particularly in the cut and thrust of a debate. In some of the discussions we had earlier, we came across drafting weaknesses or errors that require that they go back to the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel. I do not, though, understand why it would be necessary to do it in this instance, in the sense that the Minister of State either accepts the principle that the Irish translation or the English translation is used. If there is a separate issue in respect of whether we have captured all the iterations of the translations in the text, that is something the Department could do anyway. The Minister of State could accept this amendment, and then if we have missed anything, it could be captured by ministerial amendments on Report Stage. Surely the purpose of the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel is to give legal and legislative advice and not to make a policy decision as to whether the English or Irish version of a name should be used. Again, I am inviting the Minister of State to convince me why that office is going to offer us anything beyond what we are currently discussing, which is whether he does this or does not do it.
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