Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

First, I note that the indemnification of authorised officers is a standard and necessary legislative provision. In this regard, the proposed deletion of the relevant provision by amendment No. 200 is not something I can accept. What the provision does is to squarely place the legal responsibility for the actions of an authorised officer on coimisiún na meán, except where the officer acts in bad faith. It is right and proper that complaints in respect of the actions of a person engaged by an coimisiún to carry out an investigation should first and foremost be directed at an coimisiún. Otherwise, a bad actor could stymie investigations simply by threatening legal action against the investigator as an individual.

As regards amendment No. 201, it is difficult to understand why the exercise of such an important legal provision should be subject solely to the quantity of claims against an authorised officer. One can easily imagine a mischievous actor making several separate claims to exceed the threshold in order to be able to bring a claim directly against the authorised officer. Accordingly, I am rejecting the amendments.