Kathleen O'Meara (Labour)

I move amendment No. 6:

In page 9, subsection (1)(g), line 5, after "Act" to insert "(provided that a complaint may be made within the 12 months immediately following the commencement of this Act regarding an action which is taken before the commencement of this Act)".

This amendment allows for a complaint to be made to the ombudsman in a one-off period of 12 months prior to the enactment of the legislation. In other words, a complaint could be made referring to the period of 12 months before the legislation comes into operation. The Bill, as drafted, prohibits that and therefore anything that happens before the legislation comes into operation is not allowed. It would not be right to have a long period before the legislation is put into operation during which a complaint could be made but this amendment proposes having a one-off period of 12 months before the enactment of the Bill during which period a complaint could be made.

I referred earlier to the fact that the Bill is two years in gestation, which is not long by any means, but that is the period from which the principle was agreed, particularly with the representative bodies. We are of the opinion that the provision allowed for in this amendment would create a greater level of fairness and confidence in the operation of the Bill.

I read the Official Report of Committee Stage of the Bill in the Dáil, with reference to this amendment in particular, and I note that the Minister's predecessor, Deputy Michael Smith, did not give us a commitment in regard to it. I hope this Minister will bring his own point of view to it.

We are not referring to complaints about something that happened 20 years ago. I note the former Minister, Deputy Michael Smith, referred to that saying that new Deputies would highlight problems that could not be solved over the years. I think I know what he was referring to. It was a particular issue that arose in the constituency, of which we all had experience, that did relate to the Defence Forces but under which a line was drawn for a number of reasons. I am not referring to that. We want to provide for a period of 12 months before the enactment of the legislation in order to make the enactment of the Bill as fair as possible.