Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

I move amendment No. 8:

In page 5, line 2, after "person" to insert "or persons".

There is no chance the Minister of State will accept this simple amendment. To be of help, I suggest that we take amendments Nos. 8 to 10, inclusive, with this amendment, given the relationship between them. We will not get much further anyway.

Amendment No. 8 relates to section 40D, which states: "Where the Minister has appointed a person to examine or inquire into any matter, and considers that any information or document that has been furnished under section 40B or 40C may be relevant to that examination or inquiry, the Minister may furnish that information or document to the person". The Minister has appointed two people to the review group, so this is a very straightforward and simple amendment to make reference to the fact where the Minister appoints a person, or persons. I would not think this is an exceptional amendment and I hope the Minister of State might accept it.

Amendments Nos. 9 and 10 do something else. The former proposes the inclusion of a section 40E, which would read: "Where the Minister has appointed a person or persons to examine or inquire into any matter and the person or persons so appointed consider that any information or document may be relevant to that examination or inquiry the Health Service Executive where it is in possession of said information or document or has access to it shall upon request furnish that information or document to the person or persons who requested that information or document." In the list of amendments, the proposed section 40E is incorrectly printed a second time as section 40F, so I presume the numbers should be changed. Section 40F should read: "Nothing contained in an enactment and no rule of law relating to the non-disclosure or confidentiality of information or documents or relating-----"

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