Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 12:

In page 28, between lines 21 and 22, to insert the following: “(3) The Minister shall not withdraw, or otherwise reverse the effect of, a notification under subsection (2)(b).”.

Amendment No. 12 is a technical amendment. The intention in the Bill was always to allow the Minister to certify a matter that has been deemed suitable to be heard in public, and once the adjudicator is notified of this fact, then section 31(2) applies and the appeal to the adjudicator can be held in public. There is no suggestion in the Bill that the Minister can subsequently unnotify, as it were, the adjudicator and reverse this decision. This amendment is based on advice from the Attorney General and is intended to reinforce this point and avoid any possibility of the approach being misconstrued, that is, that the Minister should not be able to reverse a notification making a matter public.

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