Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

Concern was raised on Second Stage about procedural assessments or aspects of the fitness to practise provision. This relates to, whether at the preliminary investigative phase, the relevant committee should be required to seek observations from the person complained against before reaching a decision on whether a substantive inquiry is to proceed. The Bill provides this as optional. Having considered the matter further and taking account of the advice from the Attorney General's office, on balance it will be better to make this obligatory. I propose to replace the word "may" with "shall".