Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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The amendment relates to section 24(12). It may be that I do not understand the intention. I hope that the Minister of State can clarify the position. Section 24(12) refers to an appeal being considered in public unless the chairperson of the appeals committee, a division of the committee or whatever "determines that, due to the existence of special circumstances, the appeal (or part of it) should be conducted otherwise than in public". I do not see where special circumstances is listed or prescribed. Who gets to decide what those special circumstances are? Given that we are talking about what are potentially very significant allegations against somebody's professional conduct or compliance with the terms of the register, I would have thought that these appeals always being in public would have been the most obvious thing for both parties. Say someone was appealing in good faith because they thought that they had been wrongly determined initially, I would have thought that they would want the opportunity to do so in public. While it is not completely comparable, I am thinking of the Residential Tenancies Board in terms of appeals and the publication of information. The more transparency here, the better. I may have misunderstood the provision. Perhaps if the Minister of State clarifies it more, I can reconsider the amendment. At this time, however, I think that any appeal should be considered in public.