Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

The advice from the Parliamentary Counsel is that the reference to health and humanitarian grounds, which are referred to in the amended section, is sufficient to cover this issue. As was indicated on Committee Stage in the Dáil, the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel has advised that caution must be exercised on the grounds contained in section 2(3)(a). That subsection requires the Minister not to give a direction for temporary release where he is of the opinion that it would not be appropriate to do so for reasons connected with one or more of the matters referred to in subsection (2). If a specific reference to age, which is proposed in this amendment, were to be included, it might have the effect of creating a problem about the release of a prisoner for whom age grounds did not apply, thereby leading to the opposite effect intended by the amendment. In this instance I must be guided by the advice from the Parliamentary Counsel that the amendment gives no added value to the text and I do not propose to accept it.