Noel Harrington (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I echo what the Chairman has said. I welcome the Ombudsman, thank her for the work she has done and wish her the best of luck and every good wish in her new role. It is significant and well deserved that she got the position through election.

I heard about the mobility grant and transport grant issues at my first meeting. It was a bolt from the blue. Since then we have had several meetings and discussions and the matter has been in the media. At a constituency level one has to deal with people who are terrified.

The Ombudsman referred this morning to how the scheme affected a small amount of people in need but in the context of the equality legislation those in need would not get anything given the resources available which would render the schemes completely useless. Sometimes equality legislation and fairness are not the same thing. Women drivers are penalised under equality legislation. They are paying more now because they are treated the same as men in terms of risk.

They are treated equally but one could argue it is hardly fair. It does not always work effectively because sometimes the equality legislation and fairness do not go hand in hand.

On the freedom of information issue the Ombudsman mentioned in her annual report, I suggest that could be a fundamental piece of work this committee should be doing in terms of being more proactive and fleshing out the point she made about FOI resources in public bodies to determine, as a public oversight committee, the way public bodies are resourcing their FOI requests or even directly engaging with FOI officers to get some feedback and see if this is an issue that should be taken further.

I was very interested to read Ms O'Reilly's comments on the justice, immigration and naturalisation issues. Does she have any opinion or comment on the direct provision elements within that Department, which is something that arises often in media? I have a concern, particularly for families and children in that system, and I believe there should be a role in that regard.

I was not a Member of the Oireachtas when the lost at sea scheme was being debated but I come from a sea fisheries community in Castletownbere, west Cork, and I can tell the Ombudsman that the people in my community followed very closely the struggle she had personally, and her office, and they empathised with that. Without going into the details of it I welcome the Ombudsman's comments today. It was one of those issues that was publicly debated in my community while it was ongoing and we look forward to a further debate on that.

On the Whip system, I entirely agree that committees such as this one should not be under a Whip system. I believe in the Whip system for fundamental policy decisions in the Dáil and Seanad Chambers but in committee we should deal with reform adequately. I agree with Ms O'Reilly's comments on the Whip system, particularly for this committee. We should not be shackled. We should be able to deal with consensus and be big enough to do it and make those decisions.