Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It was obvious that the Minister was going to oppose this proposal. I have to return to what I said earlier about the ability of the Department to frame legislation that should do things. I suggest it would be quite reasonable to provide that the spent conviction would have to be relevant to the case in point. That is not what this Bill proposes, however. It provides that such information may be introduced as evidence and that it will be up to the judge to decide whether it is accepted as evidence. I think that is the problem with this part of the legislation. I do not see anything that changes that.

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