Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 30 January 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs

Oberstown Children Detention Campus Operational Review Report: Discussion

Photo of Seán SherlockSeán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

To be helpful, the legal advice to the Minister is from the Attorney General's office and we do not have access to that legal advice in this House.

Therefore, one can assume the representatives of Oberstown do not have access to that legal advice either. It would be contrary to the law. On that basis, my understanding is that the Minister has discretion, on the basis of the advice, as to whether to publish. What we are hearing here, based on what has been an enlightening interaction with the delegates, is that there is now a clear need for the report to be published and put in the public domain so the questions that arise may be answered satisfactorily and so members of this committee can make some determination as to their interpretation of matters.