Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

As I indicated on Committee Stage on 12 June, I have tabled some minor amendments to clarify further the provisions of sections 5 and 6 of the Bill. These sections deal with the prescribing of organisations and the prescribing of a class or classes of persons who work for those organisations. The purpose of the sections is to allow that the defences set out in section 4 of the Bill will apply to these organisations and the relevant persons. These provisions are important to ensure that organisations that provide counselling and crisis support to victims of offences can engage with the victims and can provide the necessary therapy and support without immediately being required to report the offences against the victim to the Garda. I again highlight that such defences only apply in cases in which the organisation or person can show that it, he or she acted in the interests of the health and well-being of the victim concerned. The purposes of the amendments that I have introduced are twofold. Amendments Nos. 1 and 3 make a provision that the Minister can refuse an application for the designation, in respect of an organisation or in respect of a class or classes of persons, if the Minister is not satisfied that the organisation or classes of persons meet satisfactorily the requirements of section 4 of the Act. This is implied by sections 5 and 6 of the published Bill but I have introduced these amendments to make this clear and explicit.

Amendments Nos. 2 and 4 provide that the Minister may revoke the prescribed status of organisations or class or classes of persons. The amendments also provide that in such cases, the Minister will be required to notify the organisation before making such a decision and will be required to allow them to make a submission to the Minister, which will be taken into account before a decision is made. Logically, given that the Bill provides a mechanism for the Minister to prescribe certain organisations and persons, there clearly also must be a mechanism for the Minister to revoke the decision to prescribe an organisation or classes of persons, should this be necessary.