Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

Yes. If someone is derelict in their duty and that is found by the investigation and the evidence adduced is clear, should that not be shown? Is the problem in this country not that all the failures are said to be systemic and no one is responsible for anything? I was going to entice myself to talk about financial services but I will resist. It is clear that in certain activities in the past people who were charged with doing a job failed and we should have that investigated. We trust in the Members of the Houses to make laws that impact in a minute, intimate way on the lives of everyone. Often they impact in more ways than on a person's good name, as important as that is. We make laws that impact on people and we try to do so fairly and in a balanced way. That is our job. We levy taxes and so on and all of this impacts on the citizen. However, there is a view somehow that the issue of a person's good name is in a class of its own and we should not challenge it in an impartial or fair way but I do not accept that.

Senator Byrne referred to the attitude of the Government to the Opposition. I will try to prove that I genuinely have an open mind and that for any legislation I bring to the House I will be open to hearing the case for any amendment or rebuttal. I did the same in the other House. Deputy McDonald tabled an amendment which I considered to have merit. I spent one day with the Attorney General and her staff. The legal advices I had were to the effect that it was unnecessary and that the oversight of the court and its fair procedures are absolutely implicit. However, I insisted on including it because I sought for it to be explicit so there would be no doubt in people's minds when it came to voting on it.

When the Parliamentary Counsel is drafting constitutional amendments to be put to the people and to be inserted in the Constitution, he measures out words like precious metal. One must argue, parse and analyse each word. The notion of including another sub-clause necessitates pushing the case, especially if the view is that it is unnecessary.