I cannot accept amendment No. 15 simply because I cannot legislate for what another government does in its jurisdiction. However, engagement is already happening between my Department, the Department of children and our sisters departments in Britain and Northern Ireland. As Senators referenced, the vast majority of survivors who have moved away have gone to Britain or Northern Ireland. The new scheme in Northern Ireland deals with people living in the North who were in institutions here and how payments to them fr…

I am always open to amendments. I spent most of my time in my previous role as Minister for Justice either in this House or the other House debating legislation given the type of Department that it was. I am always open to amendments and working with colleagues here. I agree with a lot of the amendments tabled today. Some of them are in the Bill already and that is why they have not been accepted. I simply cannot accept other amendments and some amendments have been ruled out of order. In terms of the payment, we m…

There are a number of amendments, and I will go through them one by one. Amendment No. 16 relates to something we have previously discussed. I restate and stress again that the payment of €3,000 is in line with the previous payments of the other schemes. It is something that does not require an individual apology to show where it is being spent. It is a payment directly to the individual, but it is obviously under the heading of a health payment. I cannot accept that amendment. Amendment No. 19 is somewhat differen…

Yes.

If it came across in a different way, let me make it clear that redress is not to prevent people from taking legal action and it is not to substitute one for the other. Redress is an acknowledgement of a wrong and, in a small way in many instances, an attempt to try to right that wrong. One can never right that wrong but redress is not there to stop anybody from taking legal action or to prevent somebody from getting the justice he or she rightly deserves. On Senator Craughwell's point, it is to make sure insofar a…

Yes.

This amendment relates to the special advocate. As the special advocate falls under the Minister for children, it is not within my remit so I cannot accept this amendment. This amendment is separate from the amendment related to Sage Advocacy that was mentioned.

This is a separate amendment.

The amendment concerns a range of supports that would be provided on the recommendation of Sage Advocacy. As this is not a matter within the remit of Sage Advocacy, I cannot accept the amendment. Amendment No. 22 is the amendment the Senator and I said we would engage on further.

It refers to supports "that will be provided by Sage Advocacy". It is not within its remit to do that.

What I am proposing is that I will work with the Senator to see if we can find a form of wording to put forward an amendment and, if not, we will work to set out exactly what work is being done by Sage Advocacy, how we can enhance that and how we can give a commitment to provide future resources because the amendment is specific to resources.

I cannot commit to an amendment on this matter specifically but if there is not an amendment, we can set out how we can enhance what Sage Advocacy is currently doing.

While I cannot deal with the issue in this Bill, I am happy to engage with the Senator further on it and on suggestions of a possible way to deal with it elsewhere.

I thank the Senators for speaking on this. I fully support and appreciate the intention behind the amendment. As I stated last week – I agree with Senator Boyhan in this regard – every person responsible for committing the absolutely atrocious crimes and perpetrating such abuse must be held responsible. Those who looked the other way or turned a blind eye must be held responsible. We must ensure there is not just an acknowledgement and an admission of wrong but also payment where it can and should be made, not just…

Who is incompetent?

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I join him in acknowledging the unbelievable contribution that both secretaries and caretakers play in our school community and thank them for the work they do. Obviously in recent years, progress was made through the WRC and engagement with the secretaries to change the rate of pay and the way in which they were paid. Work is under way to follow through on that and put in place a similar structure for our caretakers. Any future requests, particularly relating to pensions,…

It is important to outline that as of the end of April, 399 new classes and one class that has been given a legal direction to open, comprising a total of 400 new special classes, are being opened, coupled with places that have become available due to natural movement, meaning 3,900 new spaces are available. What I expect as Minister and what is happening now is that all of those places are being designated. Those young children and people who are known to the National Council for Special Education are being provid…

I am delighted to be in the Seanad for the second time this week and am grateful now for the opportunity to set out some of my priorities as Minister for Education and Youth. My objective, which I assume is the same for everybody, is to deliver a world-class education system which breaks down barriers and above all ensures every child can achieve his or her full potential. An education system which wraps around all children and young people in every community is essential if we are to achieve the goal that they are…

Some 399 new special classes have been sanctioned so far for the 2025-26 school year. Of these, 287 are at primary level and 112 are at post-primary level, increasing the number of special classes by 103% since 2020. This means overall that there will be 3,700 special classes and 129 special schools in operation throughout the country. We will continue to build on that. Just under 3,300 children and young people were identified to the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, under the new parents’ notification…

The Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, and I have been meeting with the NCSE to make sure we are on top of the figures and understand where we are. As of yesterday, more than 92% of children have been allocated places or are in the process of that happening. Outside of Dublin, where there are still places to be allocated, there are pathways for every child. For example, in our county of Meath, there are no places to be allocated for primary or post-primary schools and, in terms of special school allocations, there…