Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy again for tabling the amendments and her team for preparing them. It comes back to my original point on how we have tried to strike a balance in making sure the Bill is as robust as possible. In this redaction will be the exception, not the routine. The adjudicator is independent. When we are briefing the Deputy on the previous amendments we will go through the adjudication process with her. The Minister will be bound by the outcome of the decision.

We are concerned that deleting the text, as proposed in the Deputy’s amendment, would introduce an ambiguity to the subsections. We are also concerned that we have to be able to protect secure information and State security information from third-country security services and people who may not even be looking at it with a commercial eye but for other reasons. These people may use information that comes in some of these applications for other reasons. It has always been an effort to strike a balance between transparency and making sure the legislation is effective and fair. We also want to make sure we do not inadvertently do something that weakens our State security.