Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The phrase “at all reasonable times” in relation to the ability of authorised officers to enter premises for the purposes of carrying out an inspection is the standard wording. Section 55(1) of the Child Care Act 1991 contains this wording to allow an authorised person, a Tusla preschool inspector, to enter at all all reasonable times any premises where a registered preschool service is being provided. While I envisage "all reasonable times" normally being interpreted as implying working hours or "during reasonable working hours" as stated by the Deputies in their amendment, it is still important to provide for the possibility, even if it very unlikely to occur that an authorised officer will need to have access at very short notice to a premises where child care records are kept. For example, it might come to the attention of an authorised officer that there is a case of suspected fraud and that there is a possibility that the person in possession of the records might seek to destroy them. That is the reason I am not proposing to accept the amendment.

I do not anticipate that would happen very often, if at all, but at the same time if we took the amendment in the names of Deputies Mitchell and Funchion "during reasonable working hours", there would be no possibility, should there be a suspicion, or a need to check outside of reasonable working hours for the authorised officer to be able to do so.