John Dolan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I asked if the Department investigated the options under the Equality Act so that it could regularise the scheme as it stood. This is different from the advice the Department got from the Ombudsman in 2011 about how to widen the scheme. Could the Department have put a legislative underpinning onto the scheme as a stopgap before anything else was done? I asked if the Department had sought any advice from the Ombudsman. The Ombudsman offered advice in the 2011 letter but my understanding is that engagement between the Department and the office of the Ombudsman significantly preceded 2011. This issue had been fermenting for a quite a number of years without being dealt with until it blew up in February 2013.