Brendan Ryan (Labour)

The Chair will have to bear with me before he decides whether I am misbehaving, as the point I wish to make relates to both the amendment and the section. Section 27 states, "a person shall not, without the consent of the Agency, disclose confidential information." As only the agency can decide what may be disclosed, it is surely illogical to allow the agency and the Minister to determine the definition of confidential information. If the Minister declares that something is confidential, the agency may still decide to disclose it if it wishes. In such an instance, the idea of the Minister acting as a kind of second protection is meaningless. The amendment is unnecessary if the agency and the Minister are not both mentioned in section 27(1).