Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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I move amendment No. 3:

In page 10, line 35, to delete “21 April 2008” and substitute “1 January 2005”.

This amendment relates to the retrospective element of the legislation. The Minister has suggested bodies go back to 21 April 2008.

I understand that it would be unreasonable to go back as far as 2003 because it would impose an administrative burden. The choice of 2008, even from the public's perspective, is a bad one. In 2007 and 2008, many aspects of public administration went terribly wrong. There are still outstanding questions in respect of many of those matters. I fully concede that my choice of date, namely, 1 January 2005, could be portrayed as arbitrary also but it would not be unreasonable to ask that there be retrospection to that date. It would be wise to ensure this, not least because many things that were happening in the course of 2007 and 2008 were so much in the public mind, for good reason. The last thing we want to do in this legislation is to raise hackles anywhere or a suspicion that 2008 was chosen for the purpose of non-disclosure of any matters in the public interest. I am not suggesting it was chosen for this reason.