Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin North Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The essence of the amendments is to provide a clear definition of what "conduct" means. My nervousness is that because it took so long to get it to this stage, if we start giving specific examples of the meaning of "conduct", it could take a lot longer before the Bill is enacted. I take on board what the Senator said that perhaps we need to do some work on language and perhaps we can do something when the Bill goes to the other House. In the absence of any case law, it is very difficult to know what would or would not happen in that eventuality. Speaking personally, the only issue that was raised about my prospective employment was membership of a particular political party and I had to deal with that.

I have sympathy for the Senator's position. However, other legislation protects the freedom of assembly and freedom of speech. We hope to get a clearer definition of the meaning of "conduct". Assuming a particular course of action would not lead to any kind of ramifications in a person's employment is not good enough and tighter language or explanation is required. We can work on that but I am slightly nervous that if there are too many scenarios, this Bill would end up back in the Attorney General's office and we might not see it again in the lifetime of this Government. While I appreciate what the Senator is trying to do and we can work on that, there is the question of how successful it would be.

If a private citizen goes on a march in support of something he or she feels strongly about, and this is technically not in line with a particular religious view of the world, it is a question whether this will impact on his or her employment prospects. For example, if a promotion opportunity arises in a school or a hospital, will the person be overlooked because he or she is demonstrably in favour of a political viewpoint? Let us work on it. I am conscious that we have spent a long time on this Bill and I am anxious to get it through. We have made substantial amendments to the original text. That will have been obvious in the discussions yesterday and the amendments have been roundly welcomed. We can have a more comprehensive debate on Report Stage. We are trying to nail down the definition of the word "conduct" and this will be the key element. It is all about raising the bar to make it so high that it would really have to be a very unusual or a deliberate event to contradict the ethos of the institution concerned.