Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Today's discussion is on the complexities of the provision of non-disclosure agreements, NDAs, in the maternity protection (amendment) and miscellaneous provisions Bill with the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O'Gorman, and his officials Ms Jane Ann Duffy and Ms Catherine Roe. They are all very welcome to the meeting.

Before we begin, I have a few housekeeping matters to go through. I advise members that the chat function on Microsoft Teams should be used only to make the team on site aware of any technical issues or urgent matters that may arise during the meeting and should not be used to make general comments or statements. Members are reminded of the constitutional requirement whereby they must be physically present within the confines of the Leinster House complex to participate in public meetings. I will not permit a member to participate where he or she is not adhering to this constitutional requirement. Therefore, any member who attempts to participate from outside of the precincts will be asked to leave the meeting. In this regard, I ask any members partaking via Microsoft Teams to confirm, prior to making a contribution to this meeting, that they are on the grounds of the Leinster House complex.

In respect of parliamentary privilege, the evidence given by witnesses physically present or who give evidence from within the parliamentary precincts is protected pursuant to both the Constitution and statute by absolute privilege. The Minister and members are reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice that they should not criticise or make charges against any person or entity by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable, or otherwise engage in speech that might be regarded as damaging to the good name of the person or entity. Therefore, if their statements are potentially defamatory in respect of an identifiable person or entity, they will be directed to discontinue their remarks. It is imperative that they comply with any such direction.

Before I invite the Minister to deliver his opening statement, there are a few issues I wish to raise with him regarding the necessity to schedule this meeting for this afternoon. As he will be aware, he formally referred the general scheme of the Bill to this committee on 29 July with a request for a waiver of pre-legislative scrutiny, at which point both Houses of the Oireachtas and this committee were in recess. In good faith, over the summer recess, members of this committee, in consultation with the secretariat, came up with compromise proposals that were to be considered by members at a private meeting of the committee on Tuesday last, 17 September. Regardless of the proposals under consideration by members last week, or the decision agreed by members, the outcome would have ensured no delay was caused to the progression of the Bill. Significant factors in members not wanting the progression of the Bill to be delayed were, first, the positive aims of the Bill and, second, the inclusion in the general scheme of parts of the Employment Equality (Amendment) (Non-Disclosure Agreements) Bill 2021, a Private Members' Bill sponsored by Senators Ruane, Black, Flynn and Higgins.

As the Minister is aware, the committee was scheduled to meet at 3 p.m. last Tuesday to consider this matter. The first written clarification sent by the Minister’s office for the attention of members, alerting them to the fact that there are complexities with the provision of NDAs in the version of the Bill the Minister is planning seek agreement to publish, was sent at 12.51 p.m. on the day of the meeting, and a subsequent item of correspondence was received at 2.39 p.m. In these items of correspondence, the Minister advised that the drafting of amendments to restrict the use of non-disclosure agreements in cases of discrimination bring their own complexity and that the drafters need to consider a number of pieces of legislation in drafting the Bill. He also advised that as non-disclosure agreements are not currently provided for in legislation, new definitions would need to be developed, and work on these issues is ongoing and it is his intention to table these amendments on Committee Stage in the Dáil.

Members are of the view that these issues were not submitted for their attention in a timely manner. These late developments have left members with a lack of trust that the Minister will deliver on the promise he made to include the NDA provisions in the Bill. Members hope that this afternoon the Minister can provide clear clarification as to what these complexities are and how they will be addressed. Most importantly, members also require the Minister’s assurance on the public record that these provisions will be included in the Bill. Members are also of the view that the complexities that have risen should be addressed before the Bill is published. Members of this committee take their responsibility in scrutinising legislation very seriously. They are of the view that this is a very important process undertaken by parliamentary committees and sufficient time should be allocated when drafting any heads of a Bill to allow for proper scrutiny.

I wish to put on the record once again that it was not the intention of this committee to delay its decision regarding the request for a waiver of pre-legislative scrutiny, nor was it its intention to delay the progression of this Bill. However, given the late developments, members require clarification and, more importantly, reassurances from the Minister as the Minister with responsibility for this Bill.

I invite the Minister to deliver his opening statement.