Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The amendments under sections 11, 16, 17, 18, 54, 62 and 67 are the most substantive amendments being made to the Bill. In March 2015, I advised the Seanad that I intended bringing amendments to both the Criminal Justice (Spent Convictions) Bill 2012 and the National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Act 2012. We needed to amend both of these because of a UK Court of Appeal decision in R (T) v.Greater Manchester Chief Constable (CA). The UK appeal found that the indiscriminate disclosure of all old minor criminal records is incompatible with Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights. It must be based on the principle of relevance and proportionality and there must be a degree of coherence between the legislation providing for spent convictions and any legislation providing for disclosure of criminal convictions for employment purposes. Put simply, any offences excluded from vetting disclosures because they are not relevant should also be spent convictions. That is the key change being made.

There is also a change in regard to the District Court. Section 54 provides that the following District Court convictions will not be disclosed by the Garda vetting unit: motoring offences more than seven years old, with the proviso that dangerous driving convictions are limited to a single conviction, and minor public order offences more than seven years old. Where a person has only one District Court conviction, other than motoring or public order convictions, that conviction will also not be disclosed after seven years. There are some exemptions in terms of convictions for sexual offences and the bona fide concern if a person would pose a threat to a child.

These are the substantive changes in the Bill and other than these, there are only minor drafting amendments to the other sections.