Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is very important that we include public consultation in this from the beginning and make a requirement which serves several purposes. It first ensures that people know what the rules are and that they know the law. This is a chance for the people to understand how An Garda operates and for them to feed into consultation. I accept that the Bill states:

(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,

The Bill, however, needs to be explicit when it comes to the general public. The second part of the amendment is in respect of a public information campaign. The Bill states that: "a draft code of practice is published on the website of an Garda Síochána to allow a person a period that he or she shall specify to make written representations in relation to the draft code." That is all well and good but without a public awareness campaign, the general public may not know that they have to go to the website in order to make this consultation. This is why we are calling for a public information campaign.

We have seen this before in previous legislation where a public awareness campaign can very much work. I will mention one which went through the Committee on Children, Disability, Equality and Integration, which I was a member of last year, on the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act. The reason I mention that today is that I spoke to a constituent who rang me today who was benefiting from this legislation but the only reason he knew about it was because of the public information campaign, which was the information campaign on the radio and on television. The message got out to the general public. I believe that it is very important to get as much information out there to the general public as we can so that they can be included in this process.

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