Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful to the Minister for her comprehensive response.

I was aware of the T case. Indeed, at the seminar with the Irish Penal Reform Trust, we discussed the case and its implications and we were conscious that the legislation would need to be reviewed in the context of that judgment. All of us would appreciate that. It was merely the length of time it had taken.

I am grateful to the Minister for setting out the development of the administrative filter. I am grateful also to her for clarifying that a more simplified process will be put in place because that was one of the criticisms of the Irish Penal Reform Trust, that the proposed metrics in the current version of the Bill in Schedule 2 is particularly complex and a simplified version would assist in legal certainty.I am also glad to hear that the two-offences restriction will be lifted, at least in some cases, thereby enabling people to have their convictions considered spent, even when there are more than two.

I am grateful to the Minister for that clarification. I look forward to the Bill coming back to the Seanad in order that we can approve the amendments that went through the Dáil before the summer.