Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I accept the Minister's detailed response to this because I also had concerns when I first saw it. The Minister has clearly set out his position on the matter.

A case may arise where an authorised officer seems to be coming back to his or her senior authority with more fines than others or seems to be more detailed and diligent than others in getting fines. Is there a system in the Department for checking whether somebody is trigger-happy? Some fines relate to a farmer having a lame sheep where it might take a day to realise that the sheep is lame. There should be a mechanism to address when somebody is being over-zealous and where it is pointed out to him or her that he or she is not taking all reasonable measures. Such a mechanism would give us peace of mind.