Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

They might be worried now all right. I am perfectly free to put that file out on television because it is possible other people committed no offence. Maybe they left it on a bus or did something stupid like send it to a shredder and it did not get shredded. Any person in the community is free to divulge that same information and make it public.If we get to the stage that documentation which shows the internal running of the commission, the selection process or the marking of interviews, all that kind of stuff, finds its way into the hands of anybody who is not a member of the commission or a member of staff of the commission and they have it in their possession, there is no offence in making it public because unfortunately the two sections that are referred to are too narrowly cast. Sections 29 and 30 make it an offence for a particular class of people. A member of the commission and the members of staff of the commission, including the director, are criminalised if they can be shown beyond reasonable doubt to have leaked it.

However, if it just becomes available to the world at large in some accidental way or if it is leaked in bad faith, unfortunately the person who makes it public who is not a member of the staff of the commission and who is not a member of the commission, goes away scot-free. Is it the policy of the Department of Justice that a newspaper could publish this if it just happened to find its way onto a reporter's desk? Is that the Minister's intention? She should say it now if it is because if she does not accept this amendment, she will be leaving the door open for that in the future.