Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 35:

In page 24, line 33, after “Minister” to insert “reasonably”.

This amendment again seeks to put an extra requirement on the Minister in terms of requiring a relevant provider or vendor to treat as confidential the existence of the contents of the measure, in circumstances where the Minister considers the disclosure of the measures imposed by the notice would be contrary to the interests of national security or public order. The Minister of State will be aware that in that same section we both now have matching amendments regarding the deletion of the phrase "or public order". One of my concerns was that I felt this was too low a bar for such a requirement on confidentiality, so I tried to delete that and we are going to come to the Minister of State's amendment that deletes that shortly as well. I welcome the removal of the public order provision but the other constraint I had suggested for that area was that the Minister should "reasonably" consider a matter. It is a very usual thing in legislation to put in a requirement for reasonableness in terms of the consideration. Making the decision on the requirement for confidentiality should be clearly based not solely on an opinion but on a reasonable opinion and one which could stand up to a test of reason. That is where I have inserted the phrase "where the Minister reasonably considers" rather than having the Minister say this is his or her feeling on this. It is a small thing but we are dealing with significant constraints on normal practice given the introduction of confidentiality requirements and the introduction of secrecy and respect. We will come later to court proceedings. That is why I am trying to make sure the bar is higher. I appreciate that the Minister of State has taken on board my concerns regarding amendments Nos. 36 and 37 but amendment No. 35 is in the same spirit.