Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 90:

In page 132, between lines 2 and 3, to insert the following: “(6) If the Authority believes that in relation to subsection (4)there has been undue delay in a report being laid before the House, or in relation to subsection (5)if there has been an undue exclusion of material, the Authority may refer such refusal to the Independent Examiner in writing for the purposes of a review of the refusal under section 240.”.

Thanks and apologies for missing some of my previous amendments but I was stuck in another committee meeting.

We have a situation at the minute where a whole bunch of reports done by the Inspector of Prisons on the Dóchas Centre have not been published. What I am trying to do with this amendment is to prevent a situation where reports that may be embarrassing are not published. The aim is to provide a level of appeal but it is putting that appeal into the hands of the authority and the appeal would be submitted to the independent examiner. I am trying to do this within the existing structure and the existing safeguards provided for in the Bill. It is simply a minor tweak to add a very minor safeguard to prevent the lacuna that we see in terms of the Inspector of Prisons' reports at the minute.