Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for his support for the Bill. The amendment regarding the 70-year-old age limit is a sort of left-of-field idea I came across. I felt the age limit was not just, so I said the next time I had an opportunity, I would seek to have it amended and I have incorporated that into this.

Overall, as I said, the 2018 report gave a strong vote of confidence to the independence of the appeals process we had in place. It gave a number of recommendations otherwise, most of which have been progressed, but also suggested it would be helpful to establish the final post-review panel to take over the role that is currently the role of the director. The Bill will address that well. I am open to hearing feedback, such as the Cathaoirleach’s point regarding dates, and considering those points. An important part of prelegislative scrutiny is that we come forward to committee members and they road-test it, bring their own sense and perspective to it and feed that back and then I will consider whether the views are merited. By and large, I always try to accommodate them and, in fairness to the members, there is normally merit to what they propose. I thank them for that.