Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 32:

In page 19, lines 21 and 22, to delete "by such means as the Agency may advise".

Section 13(8) provides that "the Advisory Council shall publish the report by such means as the Agency may advise". I appreciate that the Minister of State has said that the EPA will be confined to giving advice on publication. While such advice would probably be redundant in the case of somebody as eminent as John FitzGerald, I would prefer it if this provision were not included in the Bill. If we want the independence of this council to resemble that of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, it should be allowed to go about its own business without being subject to a provision of this nature. It could be suggested that the way it has been included in the Bill is almost patronising. I am glad that the EPA will not interfere with the content of the report. In my own field, the tensions between the Minister, Deputy Noonan, and Professor John McHale of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council enhance the debate. We are delighted. Nobody says that person A got one over on person B or whatever. An advisory council does not have to touch the forelock in any way to the body whose performance it is called upon to assess. I am really assured by what the Minister of State said. However, I hope some lawyer does not find this provision in 20 years' time and use it to curtail the powers of the advisory council after it has published reports on the EPA in a manner which the latter does not like. I will not pursue this amendment further. If it is fully intended that the advisory council will be completely independent and will be able to publish without needing advice from anybody on whether to publish in Irish or in English or on what size typeface to use, this provision is not necessary and we should pass this legislation without providing for the agency to have a role in this regard. There is a potential danger here.