David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 102:

In page 46, line 2, after "out" to insert "having given the party a period of 30 days to pursue the complaint".

This concerns a situation where nothing has moved over a period of a year and the case, as I understand it, is going to be struck out. At the point of the hearing, having adverted the complainants to the inaction in pursuance of their complaints, they should be allowed another period of 30 days to pursue the complaint. The reason is there can be justifiable reasons for a complaint being neglected in this way and not being pursued within the period of a calendar year. The person involved may have had a serious accident and could have been unconscious in hospital and so on or he or she could suffer from a disability. It would be reasonable that once the attention of complainants or that of their legal representatives has been drawn to the fact that the case is about to expire, they should be given a period of 30 days from the point of adverting to the fact that it is about to expire to decide whether to pursue it and to get themselves ready to pursue it. The amendment simply allows people in those unusual circumstances to have the benefit of an additional 30 days having had their attention drawn to the fact that the complaint has not been pursued.