Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

The two provisions being dealt with here only refer to failures and they do not deal with refusals. I appreciate the Deputy is being consistent with proposals he intends making to Part 4 of the Bill but that would be with regard to new law. I can shorten this matter by saying that as far as we are concerned, every failure includes a refusal. If a person is asked to do X or to account for X and the person refuses to do so, that is a failure just as much as sitting there and staring at the wall and not giving an explicit refusal. We do not propose to accept the Deputy's amendments regarding a refusal and for that reason and for the other reason that the two Acts only refer to failure, I do not propose to accept this amendment.

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