Why is the State forcing them down this route? As ageing survivors of some of the worst atrocities, the least the Government could do is support them in seeking justice instead of obstructing them.

The Minister says that he knows from speaking to people that they want their entire stories in the report. That is not what the rest of us are hearing. People have very considerable and legitimate concerns around findings such as that there was no evidence of forced adoption. That is not someone saying that she wants her entire story represented in the report; it is saying that she wants an historical fact represented in the findings of the report. The long overdue redress scheme is at the heart of this issue. If t…

Is the Minister speaking about the old report or the new report? Will the redress be based on forced adoption or not?

My question is about safeguarding concerns in respect of the direct provision system. In April, the Office of the Ombudsman for Children published its report entitled Safety and Welfare of Children in Direct Provision, which identified a range of child protection and welfare concerns, including that staff members working in centres had not been vetted to work with children and a failure to report a serious child protection concern. What assurances can the Minister give that these issues are being addressed?

The ombudsman's report highlighted systematic faults in the direct provision system. The report was unambiguous in stating that the direct provision model "does not have the best interests of children, or the protection and promotion of the human rights of the child refugees at its core". We know many asylum seekers are vulnerable due to language barriers, lack of social supports and the traumas of forced migration. There is an inherent kind of power imbalance between staff and residents, which is made clear in the…

There has been a clear failure by previous Governments and State agencies to oversee direct provision. Is the Minister working with the Minister for Justice to address issues such as IPAS's failure to follow its own child protection and welfare policy? What is he doing in response to the failures on the part of Tusla that were identified in the report, including its failure to co-ordinate services to meet the needs of children in direct provision and identify a named social worker for a direct provision centre in o…

My question concerns clarity on the rights of mothers and siblings to access information in the forthcoming birth information and tracing legislation. It is an opportunity to ensure that the law is victim and survivor-centred. That definition has to include mothers and siblings, as people impacted by the State's deeply problematic adoption system. The proposed legislation, as it currently stands, ignores the rights of natural mothers to their personal information and the rights of siblings to information about each…

If mothers can already exercise their rights under GDPR, why can adoptees not do the same? As the Minister says, the legislation is about access to one's own information. For adoptees, it is about access to their birth certificates, a right still denied to them by the State despite GDPR guidelines, and it is also about access to other early-life information. A mother should be able to gain access to her own care and adoption files. Even under current data protection law, they can gain access to some information, bu…

It is just confusing that there is acknowledgment of some rights under GDPR but not others. Access to birth information has to be unconditional. The Bill currently proposes a compulsory information session with a social worker. This is another issue. Adoptees have rightly pointed out that this is a barrier, not to mention that it is also condescending. It would be more appropriate if the Bill ensured that all people seeking information were provided with medical and counselling support rather than a compulsory info…

The agreement on the new Common Agricultural Policy has been met with mixed responses. The sooner the Minister for Agriculture, Food, and the Marine can provide clarity on key questions, especially for small and family farms, the better. The Minister has pushed for national flexibility and now that he has it, we need to know what he will do with it. We need to see the best outcome for a more sustainable and viable farming sector. Family farming needs to be at the heart of the policy, as for too long factory-style f…

In west Cork, we are lucky to have some of the most spectacular marked trails in Ireland, including the Sheep’s Head way and the Beara way. We also have wonderful short routes such as the Fastnet trails, Castlefreke trails and Kilbrittain trails. Research carried out for West Cork Development Partnership in 2012 demonstrated that walking tourism generated €14 million for the local economy and supported an estimated 353 full-time equivalent jobs. It is exactly the type of sustainable tourism project we need in rural…

I thank the Minister of State and welcome the fact that the Minister has agreed to meet with the group in west Cork. We had requested such a meeting. The Minister of State outlined the scale of investment and that is the reason we need more rural recreational officers. That is the way to get the full benefit of the scheme, not to mention the obligations to the overstretched staff there. As well as the existing duties, the west Cork rural recreational officer role is also responsible for a significant portion of the…

The story of maternal healthcare in Ireland is the story of how we have treated women in this country. It is far from a happy story; it is a lot closer to a horror story. Irish maternal healthcare was a place where misogyny reigned, where women were defined solely in terms of their reproductive functions and where they were denied control of themselves, their bodies and their lives. In the early days of the Free State, as the Dáil limited women’s opportunity in public life, we had disgracefully high maternal and in…

As the Taoiseach is aware, the number of people who contacted the domestic violence support service, Women’s Aid, increased by more than 40% last year. A similar concerning pattern is reflected in local services such as in west Cork where the West Cork Women Against Violence Project has seen an increase of more than 40% in calls and reports. The Istanbul Convention specifies that there is one refuge space per 10,000 people. However, in Ireland we provide one refuge space per 10,000 women, leaving us with 50% less t…

What about compliance with the Istanbul Convention?

The question was about the number of refuge spaces we provide.

Over the past few months in our discussions of the Common Agriculture Policy, CAP, the Minister has repeatedly informed me that his position is to seek as much national discrepancy, or flexibility as he calls it, as possible for CAP funding. He also informed me that the national CAP plan is “a matter of engaging fully with farmers throughout the country on what our plan should look like, and fully consulting everyone before I, as Minister, make any calls on that". I may disagree with the ambivalence of the Minister…

Does the Government stand over the report of the Commission of Investigation into the Mother and Baby Homes, as it claims it does in the High Court, or does it believe there are such fundamental problems with it that it is now necessary to authorise a separate review of the report, as the Minister has now said? The Chief State Solicitor's office submitted statements opposing judicial reviews being granted because it says these women seeking judicial reviews are not identifiable in the report. The Taoiseach can obvi…

Does he accept that the Chief State Solicitor-----

Will he answer the question, please?