Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Yes. That is fair.

I take Deputy Carthy’s point. The Bill provides the Minister the ability to do what he suggested by regulation. Section 80(2)(b) allows the Minister to make such provision, by regulation, for "the procedures for the making of complaints under this Act, including the format, timing, evidence, standing and other requirements for efficient and fair processing of complaints". As lessons are learned, the Minister will, by way of statutory instrument, have that capacity without needing to do it through primary legislation.

I accepted this committee’s recommendation to increase the period for bringing a summary offence under section 81 to three years of the date from which the offence is alleged to have been committed. As such, the amendment would mean that the regulator was obliged to pursue an investigation after the period for bringing a summary prosecution. That is possible, of course.

The key point is that the Bill provides that regulations can be made to provide for detailed measures like this one. That would be a more appropriate way of doing it as opposed to specifying it in legislation.