Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 10 July 2019
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality
Spent Convictions: Discussion
Dr. T.J. McIntyre:
I will elaborate briefly on my understanding and Ms Ní Chinnéide might have something further to say. The short answer is that we are not talking here about deleting records. It is unlike some jurisdictions where criminal records are expunged after a period. What we are talking about here is the obligation of individuals to volunteer the information when employers or insurance companies are asking about convictions and the capacity of the State vetting service to provide information in the context of vetting; we are not talking about modifying information held on central databases at all.