Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I absolutely respect the Deputy's background and front-line experience in this area. I am listening intently to the points she is making and am doing my best to explain my perspective on this. We can unpick this bit by bit if we take a sectoral or silo-like approach but if one stands back and looks at the system in its entirety, taking into account the threshold for a fitness to practise inquiry, one sees that the fitness to practise findings and the sanction have to be fed to the High Court anyway. They also have to be approved by the High Court before there is any talk of publication. It has reached that stage anyway, having been through three or four steps. We cannot look at this in isolation, from the original misdemeanour to the point of publication. All the necessary steps will be taken and I am sure that all of us, collectively, want to ensure that regulators have a full range of powers but are also open to scrutiny and publishing is part of that.

I accept that not everything runs like clockwork and Deputy O’Reilly has brought that insight to this legislation. She has pointed out that there are circumstances where it is legitimately in the interests of a person not to have the findings published. We have recognised that in this legislation by affording the High Court the right to determine that it would not be published. That can be done through the regulator at the time of the investigation.