Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

For clarification, it was not my intention to isolate one grade, group or category, although I accept that is how it looks. Sometimes, however, it is not in the public interest.

Let us put aside the technicality of the amendment. I accept this is isolated to one group. Does the Minister accept there are scenarios where the sanction could be quite light? The offence, for want of a better word, might be relatively minor. There are scenarios where the public interest is not served by publication or notification of one's employer. I am thinking in particular of the woman mentioned earlier, who I will not name. She was terrified that, should she choose to re-enter the workforce, her employer would be advised of her offence. I acknowledge that an offence was committed, but she had more than come through it. Does the Minister accept that there are scenarios where, for whatever reason, it is not always in the public interest to publish this information? There are situations where the damage caused to the person in question would outweigh any benefit to the public interest.

I accept that there is a technical issue with the amendment. That is fine. Between now and when this Bill comes before the Seanad, I ask the Minister to engage with those representing these people because there are scenarios where the public interest would not be served. I accept that the public interest is absolutely paramount. However, I have experience of situations where it would definitely not have been in the public interest to publish that information in any way, shape or form. It would bring people back to a time in their life when they had a particular issue, through which they have now come. It would be unfair to keep bringing them back to that place.

See this speech in context