Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I again thank the Deputy for her amendments and her persistence in this regard. Amendment No. 22 proposes to remove the exemption that would protect from disclosure information which would pose a threat to the safety of any person. Amendment No. 23 proposes to remove the exemption that would protect from disclosure information which could pose a threat to the security of the State.

I have reflected on the case the Deputy made on Committee Stage. I remain of the view that sensitive forms of communications relating to the safety of a person or the security of the State should be protected from the requirement to register under this legislation. This is why I have included these specific exemptions from the communications covered in the Bill. This approach is similar to that adopted in FOI legislation which recognises that certain sensitive information that literally pertains to a person's safety or the security and safety of the State should not be made public.

On Committee Stage Deputy McDonald asked for some examples of what might constitute this, which was a fair point. Regarding amendments Nos. 22 and 23 relating to the safety of the person and the security of the State, I looked at a variety of situations, obviously many of them in the justice area and so on. I will just take one relating to the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, which formed part of the submissions I received. Companies involved in the export control system have expressed concerns directly to the Department over the safety of their employees where details are made public. In discharging its export control responsibilities the Department applies rigorous security to applications for export licences. This often involves consultation with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on cases where exports are being made to countries where the Department has concerns regarding the risk of human rights infringements or the risk of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, for example. Making information in many cases public would be very damaging to the international relations and perhaps in some circumstances pose a real threat to the security of individuals who are acting in our interest to ensure, for example, that certain things should not be exported to places where they might be misused or abused. That level of information should be protected. That is just to give one example and there are many more.

Having reviewed the cases made to me by individual Departments, I think there is still a coherent case. It is a procedure that is not unknown and is replicated in many similar statutes in jurisdictions that have the same open democratic view of these matters that we do.

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