I welcome the fact that two years ago, in June 2022, the Government published its strategy, Zero Tolerance. The House will be aware that the central aim of that strategy was the adoption, as a society and a State, of a zero-tolerance attitude to domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. What was beneficial about the strategy that was launched was that it was accompanied by an implementation plan. As the Minister has indicated, one of the central requirements of the implementation plan was that we would increase t…

I was pleased to read the implementation report in respect of 2023, which said that the number of safe homes, as it referred to them, had doubled in 2023 with 17 additional safe homes coming on stream, bringing the total number to 49 by the end of the year. I am also pleased to hear that the Minister expects we will be able to achieve the objective of the strategy, which is to double the number of spaces within the period of the implementation plan. I will mention something important, of which the Minister will be …

I am extremely concerned about the International Protection Office in Mount Street. As the Minister is aware, over the past 18 months the number of people applying for international protection has put considerable pressure on the office on Mount Street, such that I am concerned about the capacity and suitability of it. Does the Minister have any plan to conduct a review of it? Does she have any plan to identify other locations where people can apply for international protection?

I thank the Minister. As the Minister has said, the International Protection Office has been present on Mount Street for more than 20 years. I have been a Deputy since 2016 and there has never really been any issue with the office operating there, except over the past 18 months. What has happened is that, as we are all aware, the number of people applying for international protection has increased significantly. Until the office in Citywest was opened, everyone was applying for international protection at Mount Str…

I thank the Minister. It is still the case that 57% of all applicants apply physically by arriving at Mount Street. We need to look at what happens in other countries, where they have a series of different locations where people can apply for international protection. It does not appear to make sense to me that we have only one or two physical locations where people apply. We should also be considering applying new technologies so people can apply online for international protection without the necessity of having …

This Bill has been introduced because of the equality provision under Article 41 of the Constitution. Under that provision, there is a requirement to ensure that all citizens shall be dealt with equally before the law. That means that when the State and particularly the Oireachtas, when we enact laws, cannot unjustly or arbitrarily discriminate between citizens. It does not mean we cannot treat citizens differently, however, based on their social function or differences of capacity. For instance, there is much legi…

-----and I met a man who had been convicted of murder and had received a life sentence. He was not in any way trying to impress me but I was surprised by what he said to me, that when he was being brought up as a young man, he was taught by his father that all the problems in his life could be resolved through violence. He believed that into his 20s and 30s. He consistently believed that violence could solve the problems that he faced in life. He was honest in stating that he believed it did solve them and he was o…

I will start by saying that, as a barrister, I have represented many people who have taken defamation claims. I have also represented many media organisations that have defended defamation claims. That does not give me any more authority than anyone else in the House to speak, but I have an insight into how defamation law has developed since the last significant enactment came into effect on 1 January 2010. I will start by dealing with an issue raised by Deputy Howlin when he stated that ordinary citizens did not g…

The Minister of State can respond, but I suspect that that is part of the reason we have the provisions that are included in section 17. Politicians are perfectly entitled to institute defamation proceedings. In fact, some of the more significant defamation judgments have been as a result of politicians’ proceedings, whether instituted by the former Minister, Proinsias De Rossa, or the former Taoiseach, Albert Reynolds. However, we need to recognise that defamation proceedings cannot be issued simply to confront or…

I did not intend to speak on this amendment but I will do so because a very interesting debate has commenced since I came into the Chamber. I came in here intending to speak on amendments Nos. 7 to 12, inclusive, which seek to give effect to another High Court decision - in the case of A & B v . the International Protection Office and the Minister - which was delivered in March of this year. The purpose of amendment No. 3 appears to be to give statutory effect to the decision of the Supreme Court in the Damache cas…

We are three years on from the Damache case, in which the Supreme Court declared sections 19(2) and 19(3) of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956 to be unconstitutional. We sat on it for quite some time. The Supreme Court provided some form of instruction to this House in terms of what to do. The Supreme Court decision said and recognised that the decision as to whether naturalisation is granted or revoked - it is the same in respect of citizenship - is a matter for the Executive. It also said that the pr…

It is ultimately a matter for the Oireachtas to determine-----

There has been considerable delay in giving effect to the decision in the Damache case. The circumstances of Demache made quite a significant case. Another matter that needs to be emphasised is that it certainly must be the case that the Government - the Executive - must be entitled to decide whether revocation of naturalisation is permitted. I listened to the points that Deputy Howlin made and others echoed in respect of a two-tier system and the revocation of naturalisation. Certainly from looking at the Damache …

Amendments Nos. 4 to 12, inclusive, seek to amend the International Protection Act 2015 on foot of a decision I referred to earlier, which was a decision by the High Court in March of this year, A and B applicants v . the International Protection Appeals Tribunal, IPAT, and the Minister for Justice. I have a suspicion that this legislation will end up before the courts again so it is important that we give it careful consideration. I have a number of queries. I am not asking the Minister to answer them immediately,…

I want to start by saying a few words in support of miscellaneous provisions legislation. Sometimes it gets treated very harshly in the House. Criticisms are made about it that centre on the claim that it entails a scattergun approach to legislating and that we need a much more holistic approach to individual issues. I disagree. The great benefit of miscellaneous provisions legislation is that it gets important areas of the law changed in a very prompt fashion. Sometimes if there is a discussion about making change…

We should never tire of reminding people that Independence transformed the fortunes of this country and the people who live here. It transformed the country from being a provincial backwater of the United Kingdom into being a modern European state. In looking for evidence of that transformation, we probably need look no further than at the impact of migration into and out of Ireland over those historical years. During the time when we were a province of the United Kingdom, the population of this country had been de…

I welcome the establishment of the task force and commend Mr. David McRedmond for taking on this important role. However, I think he is going to have a very challenging task in terms of trying to change the status and make-up, and deal with the concerns that we all see when we travel through the city centre at present. I have no doubt Mr. McRedmond and the other people on his committee will be able to describe the problems that are present in Dublin city centre. Unfortunately, one of the consequences of Covid and t…

The meeting in Paris in February commemorated the second anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I am sure the Taoiseach's predecessor, who attended it on our behalf, and the other leaders of the EU were fairly consistent in their desire to ensure that there was continued support for Ukraine. Obviously, from this country's point of view, we are limited in what we can do with regard to our military neutrality. However, when you look at our representation in the EU, we do have an important voice. One other th…

I do not know how members of An Garda Síochána can keep on top of the amount of laws there at present. Sometimes we see gardaí involved in situations and ask why they are not implementing, say, section 7 of the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act or as I was saying in respect of Mount Street, the Roads Act 1993. There is such a vast amount of legislation that people in this House, and, indeed, lawyers, find it hard to keep on top of it. It must be an extraordinary burden for members of An Garda Síochána. It might b…

I move: That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to amend and extend the Maternity Protection Act 1994 and to provide for postponement of maternity leave where a mother has been diagnosed with cancer or other serious illness during pregnancy, and to provide for related matters. The purpose of this Bill is to amend the maternity protection Acts so that a mother who has recently given birth to a child but who has been diagnosed during pregnancy or immediately after with cancer or another serious illn…