David Norris (Independent)

I move amendment No 5:

In page 6, subsection (3), line 17, after "evidence." to insert the following:

"The Superintendent of the Garda Síochána must present to the Court a document certifying whether the premises has been appropriately and properly managed and supervised during the preceding year.".

This amendment seeks to address the position I referred to just a few minutes ago, where the court has inadequate or no information at all about the behaviour of the people running these premises in the preceding year. To a certain extent I am inspired to table this amendment from reading what Professor Keane stated about the responsibilities of senior consultants within the health service. He pointed out that in Canada, it is a requirement of a senior consultant in hospitals to issue a certificate every year of competence to all those medical personnel underneath the consultant. This avoids, as much as possible, botched operations and diagnoses.

I have attended court on a number of occasions where applications for licences have simply been rubber-stamped. There is no other possible description of it. When I mentioned this before, a large number of people, including solicitors, came to me and told me I was perfectly right. They had attended court on such occasions. This is not appropriate.

If we are to grant licences on the basis of the good character and responsible behaviour of the proprietors, we must have some evidence. It is not sufficient for a judge to rubber-stamp a string of these applications without the slightest inquiry. I have seen cases where there were serious questions about the way in which licensed premises, in particular, were being run and yet the applications went through on the nod.

A requirement to produce a certificate is not very onerous but would assist in the proper running of premises. It should be a minimal requirement as otherwise judges will simply issue licences without any knowledge of the behaviour of the people behind the applications. This will happen unless the application becomes so scandalous that it appears in the newspapers or other media and the judge becomes aware of it through these channels.