Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail)

I welcome this discussion of the Bill and I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy O'Dowd to the House. He did not make the statement earlier and I am certain that the Minister of State, Deputy Lynch, did not write the response. There are elements in this response which are, frankly, insulting and beggar belief. I refer to the Minister of State's contribution which states:

The suggestion that we should blithely legislate them away is breathtaking. ... It is unfortunate that these good intentions have been undermined by this fatal attack on judicial independence. ... We are not given to the knee-jerk rejection of ideas, on the sole grounds that they come from the "other side" or in this case from an independent Member, that characterised previous Administrations ... it would be perverse if this House were to give fair wind to this Bill.

It is obvious an official woke up this morning in bad form because I have never heard such a response to any piece of legislation or any Private Members' Bill. I know the Minister of State, Deputy Lynch and I am certain she would not have written this response. I wish to put on the record of the House my disgust at this response.

Senator Crown has put a lot of work into this Bill. I spoke with him about it last Friday. It is also unfortunate that the Department or the Minister in this instance has focused on only three elements of the Bill where it deals with the Judiciary, the Garda Síochána and the Director of Public Prosecutions. I note the Schedule to the Bill lists 16 other areas in which, in my view, it is only right and proper that representations which are made - whether people like it or not - would be made public. For example, it is permissible to give character references in a court case, although I have not done so myself. Why should those character references not be made public? I agree that some elements of this Bill would require amendment and I am certain Senator Crown would be amenable to some amendment of the Bill. However, while the Government response thanks the Senator in this way for bringing forward legislation it then effectively kicks him out the door for doing so. This is highly inappropriate.

The Bill deals with the Irish Prison Service and the issue of the transfer of prisoners. It is only right and proper that those representations be made public as there is nothing wrong with making such representations, in my view. Members on all sides of the House have made such representations and I, too, have made representations on humanitarian grounds. There will be instances when Members of this House or the other House will regard it as their duty to make representations on behalf of an individual, be that to the Irish Prison Service in this instance. I ask what is the harm with such a letter being made public. This removes the argument that the media have to act as whistleblowers and, as Senator Crown said, in many cases, many well-intentioned representations are turned into something regarded as wholly inappropriate.

I suggest the Government study this Bill in more detail rather than dismissing it out of hand as shown by the Minister of State's response on behalf of what Senator Barrett termed the permanent government and with which I agree. At the very least the Bill should be allowed proceed to Second Stage. If one discounts the provisions relating to the Judiciary and the Garda Síochána, the other areas of the Bill are well worth discussion. The Government has stated this legislation is not worthy of consideration and it has reiterated that the Bill is an attack on judicial independence. This is an insult to the person who has drafted and presented the Bill. In my view, the departmental official who was asked to prepare a response to the Bill did not read it and did not seek to understand the intentions of the Bill. I ask the Cathaoirleach if the Seanad could make a formal complaint about this type of response being read into the record of the House. I have never seen anything like it. I have only been a Member of the Seanad for seven months but I was a Member of the other House for nearly four years and I have never seen the like from any Minister.

Fianna Fáil will support this Bill. I have no doubt that amendments will be made. Senator Bradford welcomes the fact that Private Members' Bills are put before the House. My group has used our Private Members' time to bring forward legislation but I have never seen a government in such a short period of time dismiss every Bill that has been introduced from this side of the House and deem them to be unconstitutional in some way. I hope someone will consider this Bill in the clear light of day and consider the intention of the Bill instead of just dismissing it out of hand.