Brendan Ryan (Labour)

Many of us received representations from people in the profession and one argument put to me was that this is soft in terms of preference for all hearings to be in public. Section 42 states:

(1) A hearing before the professional conduct committee shall be held in public [This is a great start].

(2) But it shall be held in private if—

(a) the registered pharmacist or pharmacy owner or the complainant so requests, and

(b) the committee is satisfied that it would be appropriate to agree to that request.

I accept on occasion business must be conducted in private. Even the Houses of the Oireachtas have reserved the right to meet in private under certain circumstances. I do not think it has ever happened. The word "appropriate" is a bit weak. A stronger term such as "the greater good or public interest demands it" would be better. Bodies such as this should meet in public and complaints should be heard in public. The bodies are quasi-judicial and we have a strong tradition that all of our judicial activities take place in public.