Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I, too, have tabled an amendment, as have other Members, on including a sunset clause. It just would not have proved possible to put in a series of amendments in the time that was allowed. During the Second Stage debate, the Minister said that she intended to bring the general scheme forward to the far end of this year. I believe that Deputy Howlin's amendment is very generous with the amount of time it provides. It is not just the process that was wrong here. Consultation is not just sending out the Bill the night before or the day before. Consultation must be more meaningful than that. The substance of the Bill is hugely problematic. Not only was this House bypassed, the Data Protection Commission was not consulted in the way it should have been consulted on and involved in the development of the legislation.

Emergencies are things that happen where one cannot predict they are going to happen. This, however, was absolutely predictable. It is not just this Government. This set of issues was also with the last Government. We have known for a considerable period of time that Ireland's approach to data protection was not in line with European Union law. For this reason, I suspect that Deputy Howlin will be pressing his amendment. If not, I am sure that one of the rest of us will be pressing the amendment if the Minister does not take this. It would be very regrettable if the Minister did not take this amendment. There is goodwill here. This is no way to provide for legislation that infringes on people's rights. The idea that we could not even have a sunset clause, which would put a time limit on that, is an appalling way to deal with this legislation. It would, I believe, show bad faith.

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