Mr. Noel Dowling:

The Minister's position in this respect has changed a little and obviously this is a work in progress. It is wrong in that one cannot have a person deciding on whether a case is meritorious in advance of a person having the opportunity to have his or her case heard. I referred to the European Charter on Human Rights which provides that a person is entitled to a hearing. While having a person look at cases and say that a case seems frivolous might recommend itself in terms of making it easy to deal with cases how can one decide that without giving the claimant concerned an opportunity to make his or her case, as in no other aspect of the law can that argument be made? In terms of what I said about the register, I understand the Minister has already resiled from that position and accepts that one cannot delegalise to that extent.