Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I have no issue with the OPR doing a summary. It should do a summary. That is good practice. I have no issue with the summary going to the Minister and the Minister reading the summary. All of that is fine. The issue is the legislation will not require the Minister to consider the submissions made, if these amendments go through. It only obliges the Minister to consider the summary produced by the OPR. They are two very different things. I would expect the Minister to get and read a summary but the thing the Minister needs to consider under these amendments is just the summary. If the summary filters out key issues from the submissions and the Minister acts on that summary, the Minister will be acting correctly and lawfully. However, if the wording remained the same and the Minister had to consider the submissions, the onus is then on the OPR and Minister that any summary produced or relied upon reflects what is in the submissions because the Minister has to make the decision based on the submissions, so if the Minister uses the summary as an aid, it must be accurate and not omit stuff. If it does, there is a problem for which the Minister and OPR have responsibility. That is the material change that is being made.

When there is good practice, an attempt to filter submissions does not happen; when there is bad practice, it does happen. The legislation would not allow for such filtering but these amendments allow for the filtering of issues out of submissions. If that filtering happens, that would be allowed by these amendments and would be lawful.