Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Of course, smoking is not allowed in the House.

I have no intention on commenting on the spats between the two Deputies in Carlow and Kilkenny. The Taoiseach has stated Mr. Frank Flannery should give evidence before the Committee of Public Accounts, with which I agree.

Senator Susan O’Keeffe raised the matter of inter-country adoptions. The Minister for Children and Youth Affairs introduced emergency legislation before Christmas to deal with Russian adoptions. I will ask her to address again the problem raised by the Senator.

Senator Sean D. Barrett referred to the anomalies in the penalty points system which he also raised with the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Leo Varadkar, in the House. On 14 May last the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Alan Shatter, referred to the Garda Inspectorate the O’Mahony report and the Garda professional standards unit's report on the fixed charge notice issue. He provided for the inspectorate seven principles which he believed should inform the operation of the fixed charge processing system: there should be no question mark hanging over the integrity of the system and the application of penalty points; no individual should receive preferential treatment because of his or her perceived status, relationship or celebrity status; the law and any discretionary application must be administered fairly with compassion and common sense; no member of the Garda force should feel compelled by a person’s position, relationship or celebrity status to treat that person any more or less favourably than any other; there must be proper oversight of and transparency in the discretionary decision-making process and the applicable rules and procedures must be fully complied with; all statutory provisions, regulations, rules, protocols and procedures applicable to the termination of fixed charge notices must be readily available to all members of the Garda force and the circumstances, factors and procedures applicable to the termination of fixed charge notices should be detailed clearly on the Garda website for the information of members of the public; where application is made to terminate a fixed charge ticket, where possible and appropriate, material to support any application made should be sought, while understanding in some circumstances there may be no such material or such material may not be obtainable. That is how above board the Minister for Justice and Equality has been on the issue of the penalty points system. Everyone will support the seven points he raised with the Garda Inspectorate.

I totally reject Senator David Norris’s assertion that the Government is corrupt in any way, or that the Minister for Justice and Equality is corrupt. He is one of the best justice Ministers we have had in the past 30 years.