David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I listened carefully to Deputy Daly. She is opposed to section 4 in its entirety, but many of her objections will be met by my amendment. The Deputy also opposes the provision that limits the Bill's application as regards information on a decision to end an investigation, not to bring a prosecution or to deal with a person other than by a trial. From a practical perspective, to make all historical criminal investigations subject to the provisions of this Bill would be administratively and operationally impossible. In many cases, the relevant information would not be available or maintained in a manner that would meet the requirements of the Bill, as it would never have been envisaged at the time of the investigation. Reviews of historical decisions not to proceed with prosecutions would also generally be pointless and reversing such decisions would not be possible. That is not the intention of the EU directive anyway and would be an ineffective use of the valuable resources of the Garda and DPP in particular. I hope that the Deputy will be satisfied that the revised section 4 meets many of the concerns that she has voiced.