Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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Again, I know what the Deputy is referring to but I believe his amendment is unnecessary. The Bill already contains several safeguards regarding requests for information. In the first instance under section 5, a person cannot be required to disclose a spent conviction or the circumstances ancillary thereto. Section 5(2) states when a person is asked about a previous conviction, he or she may regard it as not applying to a spent conviction. If a person were asked if they had any spent conviction, they can say “No” and be protected under this Bill.

Under section 11, where a person seeks his or her criminal record, possibly at the request of an employer, the Garda Síochána is required to provide the record in two parts, namely, one with the spent convictions and the other with non-spent convictions, if any. Where a person only has spent convictions, he or she can provide the requester with the clean record. In these circumstances, the Government will not accept this amendment.

While I accept one cannot legislate to prevent people from asking questions, the Bill does provide criteria to protect people as to how they answer questions regarding spent convictions.

It also provides a methodology for the documentation to be provided to ensure they can do so in a way that is protected under law.