Results 4,621-4,640 of 21,440 for speaker:Mary Lou McDonald

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: This section has the full spectrum of almost court-like protections and I recognise that the procedure guarantees immunities, privileges and so on and that incrimination may not be invoked as a reason to refuse to co-operate with an inquiry by declining to answer a question or furnish a document. Can the Minister reassure me that section 15(2) does not affect the existing constitutional...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: I appreciate the Minister's answer and I accept it. I was not asking about sanctions but about self-incrimination which I know often has the consequence of a sanction. I have raised this issue with the Minister in the past. I recognise that it is not the practice to make available the advice of the Attorney General but there are circumstances in which it would be extremely helpful not...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: I am not questioning that and I work on that assumption. I made the point that it would be helpful when we are asked to scrutinise legislation such as this, particularly given that, as the Minister correctly said, the Attorney General fulfils a dual role and there is an onus on all of us to ensure the constitutionality, as best we can, of the laws we enact.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: I understand the test of the reasonable person. As I said earlier, the complication arises when it is an inquiry into a Member of the Oireachtas. That is where, in my view, it gets a bit messy. We operate within an adversarial system and there are all sorts of things said in the cut and thrust of political debate. How can the Minister assure us that this sense of institutional or party...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: The more significant difficulty is not the revelation of discussions but rather the documentation and the paper trail. Let us imagine a sequence of events in whatever scenario is being pieced together. One will be trying to get under the skin of what happened and why. That will be hugely problematic. The legislation represents a vigorous assertion of confidentiality, particularly when one...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: I understand, but-----

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: The reason I raised this issue is that in the course of the discussion the Minister pointed to the fact that Cabinet confidentiality must be invoked, but no invoking is required here under section 68. It is very prescriptive and tells any inquiry exactly where it cannot go.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: That is a problem for-----

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: My reading of section 90 is that it would enable civil servants, who are the permanent government, to give a full and factual sequential account of what happened, including - and I ask the Minister to confirm this - the options that may have been considered and what was communicated by any person during the course of events. I understand the concern the Minister has with regard to witnesses...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: Unlike Deputy Donnelly, I see the merit in that tried and tested formula. Section 115 indicates that a witness before a committee may be required by the committee to give his or her evidence to the committee on oath. The committee would make that decision on the basis of the gravity or centrality of the evidence being brought. How is the distinction made?

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: What happens if a witness refuses to take the oath or give evidence in that respect? There are sanctions for taking the oath and giving wrong information.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: Will the Minister clarify if there is a sanction?

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: I imagine that for inquiries where an oath is required by the committee, it would underscore the seriousness of the matter.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (5 Jun 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: I think it is similar.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Non-Disclosure Provisions Under the Freedom of Information Act: Discussion with Information Commissioner (5 Jun 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: Cuirim fáilte roimh bheirt agaibh anseo inniu. I welcome our guests and it is great to have both before the committee. I wish to return to some of Ms O'Reilly's opening comments. She noted that by the end of 2009 only nine Departments had returned the reports as required under the FOI Act for the purposes of a review. To what does she attribute the delay by these Departments that...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Non-Disclosure Provisions Under the Freedom of Information Act: Discussion with Information Commissioner (5 Jun 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: I hold the view that even today the public administrative system has a cultural issue with disclosure and the provision of information. I have a sense that it is overly protective and secretive. Ms O'Reilly, interestingly, instanced the assessments and reports on schools and crèches which were amenable under FOI legislation which should have been in the public domain, yet there has...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Non-Disclosure Provisions Under the Freedom of Information Act: Discussion with Information Commissioner (5 Jun 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: I thank Ms O'Reilly for that response. I would like to raise a number of individual issues with her, but I know that the Cathaoirleach will not indulge me to that extent.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Non-Disclosure Provisions Under the Freedom of Information Act: Discussion with Information Commissioner (5 Jun 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: Therefore, I will zero in on the Department of Justice and Equality. On page 41 of her report the Information Commissioner disagrees with the Minister in two areas, namely, the Refugee Act and the Employment Equality Act. I raise the subject of justice most particularly because it is one on which the Information Commissioner has spoken previously. In particular, in respect of immigration,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Non-Disclosure Provisions Under the Freedom of Information Act: Discussion with Information Commissioner (5 Jun 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: I wish to make one final remark. Does Ms O'Reilly have a sense that the Department of Justice and Equality, the public administration, is moving towards the position she has outlined? I refer to the issue of culture.

Leaders' Questions (11 Jun 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: Following the publication of the McAleese report last February, Mr. Justice Quirke was asked by the Government to report back within three months on a proposal for a redress and compensation scheme for the women of the Magdalen laundries. I understand this report was received by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Defence last month but has not yet been published.