Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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I move amendment No. 162:

In page 105, between lines 30 and 31, to insert the following: "Amendment of section 26 of Act of 2014

28. Section 26 of the Act of 2014 is amended by the deletion of subsection (2).".

I am not necessarily wedded to these amendments, which relate to the deletion of sections of the legislation, but I would like to explore further why the members of the CCPC or the chairperson cannot, in the performance of duties, question or express an opinion on the merits of any policy of the Government, or a Minister, or the merits of the objectives of such a policy. I get that if certain policy and other decisions are taken in the interest of the performance of the CCPC but, on matters such as funding and resources, I have a concern over what would occur if a Minister deliberately underfunded the organisation to ensure it could not do its job effectively. There is no suggestion at all that any current Minister has any intention of doing this. Should a Minister deliberately underfund the organisation to ensure it could not do its job effectively, the chairperson should be allowed to raise that, at the very least, with a committee, particularly where funding and resources are an issue.

This is more of a belt, braces and baler twine-type approach to insulate the CCPC from something that might happen. I am sure the Minister of State will agree it would not be okay for any future Minister to defund an organisation as important as the CCPC and for that organisation not to then have the capacity to come before an Oireachtas committee to discuss the policy objectives of the Government.