Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)

I move amendment No. 7:

In page 19, between lines 41 and 42, to insert the following:

"(11) Documents subject to legal professional privilege shall not be liable to production under this section.".

This matter has exercised my mind, but not because I am a barrister, and I have a view on it. The Minister of State has received advice contrary to mine and to my knowledge of the subject. I am not tabling this amendment to be awkward but to ensure the legislation is foolproof and not subject to challenge. I am concerned that it will not interfere with long-established practice with regard to the common law.

The provision I propose to include states, "Documents subject to legal professional privilege shall not be liable to production under this section". This would ensure the search taking place under the section would be constitutional. The Minister of State said on Committee Stage that this amendment was not necessary and that the wording was not used in other legislation. However, this is incorrect. I do not say this lightly because he has certainly tried to be accommodating and tries to meet us half way. Similar wording is used in many recent Acts, as in section 17 of the Irish Medicines Board (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2006, sections 96 and 131 of the Garda Síochána Act 2005 and section 16 of the Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland Act 2004. I state reluctantly that the information given to us on Committee Stage by the Minister of State was incorrect. His advice that our amendment on Committee Stage would undermine other legislation is also incorrect in the context of what I have put forward. I ask him to reconsider the provision.

When the Minister of State said there was no such provision in other legislation, the Labour Party set about examining this. Section 17 of the Irish Medicines Board (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2006, sections 96 and 131 of the Garda Síochána Act 2005 and section 16 of the Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland Act 2004 include provisions similar to the one I propose. Why can the Minister of State not accept it in the context of the other legislation?

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