Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 5:

In page 33, between lines 5 and 6, to insert the following:

“(d) shall cause a public consultation and public information campaign to be carried out,”.

This amendment relates to the provisions within the Act with regard to who has to be consulted in the legislation which has been put forward. This is to ensure that there is a public consultation on the amendments. We had a great deal of discussion on Committee Stage with regard to this provision and the Minister says that she has outlined a number of people who have to be consulted with respect to changes that are made:

(i) the Minister;

(ii) the Policing Authority;

(iii) the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission; (iv) the Garda Síochána Inspectorate;

(v) the Data Protection Commission;

(vi) the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, (c) may, where appropriate, consult with the Local Government Management Agency

And so forth, but it forgets to mention that the public should also be consulted with regard to it. That is vitally important. I know that the Minister made the point on Committee Stage that it was implied that notice would be given but I do not believe that that is sufficient. There should be a requirement there to ensure that there is an active public consultation period in this regard. It might perhaps be that there may not be much interest in this or that many members of the public may not want to be consulted in this regard, but we should at the very least have the provision that they are consulted and that that is put into legislation.

It was also said on Committee Stage that it does not need to be specifically in the legislation but the Minister will remember when she appeared before the committee that she informed it that she was putting forward three or four amendments on Seanad Stage of the Bill, which were inferred in the Bill, but which she wanted to have explicitly stated in the Bill. I fail to see why they could be explicitly stated for the public and yet the public consultation should not be so stated in the Bill. For that reason, this amendment should be taken and that is why it is put forward.

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