Kathleen O'Meara (Labour)

Amendment No. 8 seeks to add the words "unless a non-national has a reasonable excuse for failure to comply with this paragraph, proof of which shall lie on the defendants". This is an important amendment as well which would provide further protection for asylum seekers and those fleeing persecution in terms of documentation, in particular. Going beyond asylum seekers and non-nationals generally, a person may not have documents or may have lost them and this amendment leaves the door open for discretion to be exercised if documents are lost.