Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

There is nothing in what Deputy Fleming has said that I would disagree with in principle. It is now standard practice, and it is in the rules of the House, that we review legislation annually. It is an appropriate job of work, particularly for the Oireachtas committee to look at the operation of the legislation.

I have three difficulties with the amendment tabled by Deputy Fleming. I think a period of 12 months is too short for such "groundbreaking" legislation to borrow the phrase he used. I do not think the typical pattern of cases will be built up in 12 months time that could then be reviewed.

That is why, in the Bill itself, I have said there will be a statutory obligation on the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform to formally review the Bill after five years and to cause a report on that review to be presented to the Oireachtas. After five years, I believe we will have a significant variety of cases across both the public and private spheres in order to be able to fundamentally see how the Bill is operating.

I have a difficulty with the timeline. I also have a difficulty in regard to giving the role to the Ombudsman, as I do not believe that is the appropriate person. The Ombudsman, under the legislation we enacted in 2012, has been given a very extended and broad remit, which is, in essence, to look into complaints whereby members of the public - citizens - have been unfairly treated by public bodies. This is quite a different set of issues because it involves both the public and private spheres. I believe it would intrude on and not gel well with the Ombudsman's work.

I believe we are in a good place, as a Department, to be able to pull together the information after five years and make a reasonable analysis of it, and to make a presentation to see if it is working well. Of course, at any time over the intervening period the Oireachtas itself can review the legislation, and it will be obliged to look at it after a year under the new protocols we have established for ourselves in the Houses of the Oireachtas. In legislative terms, if difficulties manifest in terms of the technical operation of the Act, we will be able to deal with that at any time those become obvious to us.