Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left) | Oireachtas source

I would like to echo some of the points made by Deputy Pringle on this incredibly important amendment. The whole basis of this legislation is that a mistake made by someone in his or her past should be left in the past. By ensuring that mistake stays in the past, we will give the person in question the ability to learn from it and to move forward with his or her life. That is the whole basis of this Bill. A kind of exception is being provided for in the section of the Bill that Deputy Pringle is seeking to amend. The section in question provides that a person whose conviction is expunged if he or she meets all the criteria and goes through the process might somehow have that conviction brought back to life if a judge deems that to be necessary. The measure that Deputy Pringle is seeking to change seems to be based on an unspoken assumption that people with spent convictions are more likely to reoffend. That would be the only basis upon which this evidence could be introduced in court proceedings. A conviction is either spent or it is not. There should be no exception to that rule. I do not think we should allow the criminal history of a person who has met all the criteria to be resurrected in a trial basically to make him or her look bad. This legislation should be about allowing people to move on with their lives. I suggest that if we allow this section to proceed, we will go against the whole grain of rehabilitation in a way that brings us back to the outdated sort of philosophy that informed the vindictive punishment model we are trying to move away from. It is incredibly important for Deputy Pringle's amendment to be accepted because it will ensure the courts are not able to avail of this exception to the spent conviction rule. If we accept the legislation as it currently stands, we will basically be saying that the conviction is not spent, even though it is, if that is what the judge deems. That does not make any sense to me.

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