Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

This arises out of what the Minister just said. He helpfully addressed one aspect of the amendment I tabled. It related to information that might serve to identify any third party, living or deceased, who was the subject of any untested or unproven claims and allegations contained therein, where such claims or allegations concerned an illegal act or would otherwise in the view of the commission be injurious to the reputation of any third party. I proposed that redaction would be required in respect of such claims or allegations. The Minister clarified that, where the commission in its confidential committee phase received any allegation concerning an illegal act, there would be a redaction without prejudice to what else it might have had to do in respect of notifying authorities.

What is to happen where there is other information not relating to an illegal act? When drafting the amendment, I was thinking of a very unjust possible situation.To put it in a real-world scenario, let us say that a person was named as being the parent of a particular baby. That might be might be disputed and it could cause hurt to future family members and so on. It does not necessarily involve claims about illegal acts. I would be grateful to know the Minister's view - and what the commission would do - regarding circumstances where somebody was named but where this was injurious to his or her reputation but did not necessarily relate to something illegal.