Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

I agree that this is an important section and we had some debate about it. It is quite difficult to craft a legal framework to deal with the issues that arose in open courts where people suffered from amnesia, that is, they were unable to remember evidence they had previously given in sworn statements. How to deal with such is a challenge that we must do our best to face. While it remains to be seen whether the instrument we had previously was perfect, it is probably flawed. As with all legislative attempts in this regard, there will be ways around it, but this section is an honest attempt to address a situation that has caused great public disquiet.

Many issues have been taken together. If anyone walked in and listened to the Minister's explanation, he or she would be bamboozled. The Minister spoke about indicia. In plain English, does he mean indicators?

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