Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 27:

In page 18, line 8, to delete "the Council may not consider" and substitute "the Investigating Committee may not consider".

This is a technical amendment. The intention of the proposed section 42(7C) as inserted by section 15(i) of the Bill is to provide that where the investigating committee has obtained the vetting disclosure it may not consider specified information in that disclosure where that specified information relates to conduct that occurred prior to the coming into operation of Part V unless the conduct concerned would have constituted an offence at the time the conduct occurred. Amendment No. 27 corrects an error in this provision of the published Bill whereby reference was made to the council rather than the investigating committee in this context. The provision in section 43 of the principal Act is that where, following an inquiry by a panel of the disciplinary committee, the panel dismissed a complaint, the disciplinary committee informs the complainant.

Amendment No. 28 explicitly provides for the more appropriate situation that where a complaint is dismissed it is the director, as secretary to the disciplinary committee, who advises the complainant on its behalf. It is considered appropriate that, for clarity, such explicit provision should be made consistent with the other sections of the Act.