Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is not actually a technical amendment. We were given to believe that there would be a notification process that collected data under a number of different headings, and there would be a reporting mechanism on that data, which is really important data and many people would be interested in seeing it on an annual basis. It is pretty critical to this Bill. That was the understanding, but the Minister is now restricting that and it is to be reported under subsection (4), which is much narrower in its provision and does not set out any headings under which the Minister will report. The Minister will decide what information he is going to provide. That would again raise concerns about the secrecy surrounding the impact of this legislation. In the interests of openness and transparency, so that we are all clear about the impact of this Bill, I think that the Government amendment is not acceptable. It would be far preferable for everybody that we would have the information set out in subsection (1).

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