Seanad debates
Tuesday, 9 December 2003
Independent Monitoring Commission Bill 2003: Second Stage.
The Minister rightly dealt with section 7 but at first glance I actually misread it. I thought it was a mandatory rather than a discretionary imposition on the Garda Síochána and on the Commissioner, although I believe there will be a strong political imperative for absolute co-operation in this area so as to make the discretionary aspect somewhat redundant. It raises serious security issues, however, and while I am conscious that this whole area is about security, North and South, and the fulfilment of obligations by people to ensure that everybody embraces the change in Ireland, there has to be some caution as to how that is done. I imagine the Minister and others might agree with me that a requirement on the Garda or the Commissioner to disclose operational matters or findings to outside parties is probably undesirable. I do not want to go back over even recent history in this regard but there have been instances where people with statutory responsibility did not fulfil their responsibilities as they should have. It is important that we are mindful of that.
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