Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

The idea behind codes of practice is to provide guidance to people generally. That is the way it is specifically in this case. I would not like to be the prosecutors going before a judge in a court suggesting they would make a criminal of somebody who has not observed a code of practice the purpose of which is merely to provide guidelines to the people involved in this legislation to ensure they do not infringe the statutory standards laid down, the breaking of which is already an offence. It would be fairly draconian if we were to bring a criminal sanction against somebody who has failed to comply with a code of practice. That is why the Bill, in subsection (10), states: "A failure on the part of a licensee to observe any provision of a code of practice published or approved ... shall not of itself render the licensee liable to any civil or criminal proceedings".

Failure to observe the code of practice would be an issue taken into account in the severity of the sanction imposed ultimately by the court, but not of itself. Otherwise, it would be draconian. It would possibly be a waste of the time of the court in that if somebody has failed to comply with a code of practice, more than likely he or she would have infringed some of the statutory requirements already and probably would be charged with other offences. I strongly suggest this amendment is unnecessary.