Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I appreciate the Minister of State's response. He has made clear that in the event of an inspector feeling he or she did not have access to expertise, he or she would be entitled to acquire it. The point Senator McDowell made is important in that sometimes this expertise will not be available within the State and I ask the Minister of State to consider that issue.

When I tabled this amendment I tried to get some background on what happens on site in these situations and I spoke to a well qualified young man in the chemical industry. He explained the structure in his workplace from which I thought something could be learned. He said there are different levels of sign-off depending on one's level of qualification, which goes back to my original point. In other words, a person with a certain level of qualification or degree is entitled to state something has been done correctly, for example, the making of a medicine or tablets. A person with a higher level of qualification is required to sign off on the product and to state that from start to finish, it has complied with the strictest safety regulations and, therefore, the company is a position to sign off on it.

I asked how it worked from his point of view. He gave an example of where he had to make a decision. I was stunned by it because he was quite a young man and it took a lot of guts and confidence to make such a decision. He had to pull the rug from under what would be the equivalent of a week's supply of drugs to Ireland because a particular fail-safe was not working in the safety system. He could not be sure it was right and did not know if it was wrong. As he could not be sure it was right, he had to make a decision and state the product could not go out. The whole thing had to be dumped and an entire clean-out of the system was required.

He pointed out that people like me should recognise that when he signs off on something, he is not working for his employer but for his profession and that his reputation stands or falls on his ability to get things right. There are areas where when people sign off on something, they are putting their reputation on the line. There are times when the inspector could depend on that. The chemical industry is an easy example to prove my point and perhaps there are not too many places where one could do that. When people have a professional qualification that requires them to do things on which their professional reputation hinges, a somewhat different approach could be taken.

I will withdraw my amendment on the basis of the Minister of State listening to these arguments and in the hope he will make a judgment on whether an amendment should be tabled on Report Stage to tie in some of these issues — in other words to recognise that the inspector can seek further advice or depend on the advice within the industry. I will go with the Minister of State's judgment on that.