Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I agree with Deputy Clare Daly, in that the structure of the competent authority has not been clarified. I have raised this issue with the Minister. We have discussed levels of competence, experience and so on with the officials. We have been told that there would be consultations on same. A great deal more work is needed on these matters.

On Committee Stage, amendments were passed regarding the making of complaints. It is good that we will have an authority to which residents can make a complaint, as that has been a major issue, with the DAA effectively being the only avenue open to people to date to make complaints. Most of us would agree that the majority of complaints have not been heard fairly.

The issue of complaints receiving written responses if the competent authority decided that a complaint was spurious or that it would not proceed with an investigation was the spirit of the Committee Stage debate. My colleagues in Fianna Fáil and I supported Deputy Clare Daly strongly on that amendment. While we acknowledge that there will be somewhere to make a complaint to and that the competent authority will be able to decide whether there is enough in the complaint to take the matter a step further, we agreed on Committee Stage that, if the authority decided that it could not or would not proceed, a written explanation would be given. That should be the bottom line. We understand that spurious complaints can be made and, hence, we were not saying that the competent authority had to investigate every complaint, but if there is a reason for it being unable or unwilling to investigate, that needs to be explained to the complainant in writing.

I support the request that, when the Bill is before the Seanad-----

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