Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his presentation. Most of the relevant questions have already been dealt with. There is one thing that strikes me with this. A conviction may be spent, and I have an example of this from an individual who came to me about this a number of years ago, where in his youth he had issues with mental health problems and got into spots of bother, as he described it, and it was reported in the media. To this day, when one searches for his name on Google, this matter comes up. Even if his conviction was spent, what would the position be there? If an employer or someone were to search for his name, he would run into this difficulty. He contacts the publications that published the stuff about him, which is in his past entirely and he is a different person now to who he was then, but this continues to be a shadow that follows him around all of his life. That is unfair and unfortunate and everyone would agree with that.

I am aware of a similar situation of a young person who had a small drugs conviction. Again, this continues to follow him around.

Although this legislation may deal with the official element of spending the conviction it will still not deal with that issue of a record of it existing in the media and on social media, and in how court reports are made and how they are sometimes available through national publications such as national newspapers. The record is there to be found, forever it seems. This needs to be looked at. Often it is not the official conviction but the reporting of it that has the most impact. This is certainly the reality for the two people I have spoken to. While I am aware that it is totally outside of what can be legislated for and what we are speaking about today, it needs to be examined to see what we can do to deal with that aspect.