Mr. John O'Callaghan:

Not really, no. When I saw the draft heads of the Bill, I was taken aback. I thought, "I do not know about that," but then I came around to the purely personal point of view that, on balance, I would like hearings to be held in public. However, there are big problems in that regard. It is a little like the elephant problem in that one knows what an elephant is, but it is hard to define precisely what it is. To answer the Deputy's question about the criteria, one has to trust the person involved in a hearing. Personally, I would amend the section to give a lot more discretion over personal financial matters, etc. I would generally be biased in favour of excluding purely personal details.