Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

It is not as if the Commissioner is hostile to that lobby.

The guidelines are being provided for because effectively the High Court held that each local Superintendent was a corporation sole as regards making his or her mind up as to what policies would apply. Missives from the Phoenix Park and the Commissioner were deemed to be ultra vires and an improper circumscription of the discretion given by the law to local Superintendents.

While some guidelines may be the proper subject of public scrutiny, others may not. Let us suppose, for example, that the Commissioner were, on security grounds, to say that applications from people who live very close to persons who have serious crime propensities should be examined with great caution. He or she may not want to put such information into the public domain for the guidance of those people who are the object of the direction itself. There are some kinds of guidelines that the Commissioner may wish to issue, on security grounds, for particular reasons but it may not be appropriate that——

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