Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

I have carefully considered amendment No. 26 which proposes making public all disclosures of interests made by either members or staff of the council. We must be very careful to keep a balance between the legitimate rights to privacy of private citizens and the right of the public to know of issues which might affect the impartiality of a person on the council or a person employed by it. The most important objective is to provide an environment in which disclosures will be made to the council itself so that it may act accordingly.

The public interest would not necessarily be better served by requiring the making public of all disclosures by members and staff of the council. Publishing such details could mitigate against disclosure. I propose an alternative approach through which the council would be charged with making a determination as to whether a disclosure is of sufficient importance to merit publication and, if so, to have that disclosure published in its next annual report. This strikes the correct balance and ensures that the private details, while being brought to the attention of the council as appropriate, need not be made public in all cases.