In teasing out the affidavit piece, later on we will get to how long it takes for the system to respond to applications so we add in another layer. No real timeframe went into the legislation in terms of when people can expect to hear back. Then we add in another step that requires an affidavit. Someone applies, they say that they are registered with maternity services and not with the county home because their journey began with the maternity services so the records are saying that they received maternity services…

In that case I will come back to the co-located sites. We have the mother and baby home aspect. We are saying that the legislation only recognises the mother and baby home aspect. It is based on a person's residency records and not in relation to the hospital that is on that site. Again I go back to the fact that what a person experienced on the hospital site does not have anything to do with what the person experienced in the mother and baby home on the same co-located sites. That reaches later into the waiver pos…

Then we are legislating for experience and we are making them relational. We have situations and then we have circumstances. Circumstances are many within the whole of a situation. What we are then saying is that this legislation is not about mother and baby homes or county homes but rather about situations. That situation is as long as a piece of string. In one sense, we are trying to locate it in a space and time within a building and a facility and the conditions of a county home. Then we are saying that it is a…

You cannot take a case.

What has been captured concisely by the Senator is exactly how I am struggling to separate the county home from the maternity services. Even though other people may have received adequate care, I do not think they can be separated. If a certain administration or facility has agreed to allow a county home within its site, well then it is the county home. You may have been on a ward, and experienced the stigma and the lack of pain medication. Your child was taken from you, but maybe your family decided to take you ho…

I will finish on this.

I hear the Minister saying that the mere fact of being in the maternity services - I am paraphrasing so correct me if needs be - is not recognition that a woman was in the county home, unless she was in the county home. I am saying the recognition happens later on. Later on, we are saying that the circumstance of being in the county home, and a woman may have happened to be transferred there to have a baby, is considered as part of the experience. We are saying it is the same facility because they looked after each…

Yes, exactly.

Did you ever hear the question, "What is a university?". You then point at the university and ask whether it is the university. There are different schools within it, and different this and that. It feels like that in respect of this matter. What is the mother and baby home? What is the county home? I am struggling with the fact there will be women who may not have slept in a county home but went in there and were possibly treated by the same nurse and doctor, gave birth the day before in a beautifully empowering w…

I want to extend my condolences to the Coghlan family. I was very saddened to hear of Paul's death. We were very different politically, but when I first met Paul, I think I was trying to break the ice and I went to fist pump him instead of shaking his hand. He kind of ducked for a minute and I had to explain that I was just saying hello. From then on, that was how we greeted each other, whether in the corridors, the canteen, the Chamber or at any events. Paul came running at me with his newly-learned fist pump and …

No, I have too much to say.

I would rather not.

I thank the Minister for joining us in the Chamber. I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important omnibus Bill. I begin by commending the Ministers, Deputy Harris and Deputy McEntee, on the hard work they have undertaken on addressing domestic, sexual and gender-based violence in Ireland, elements of which are tackled within certain sections of this Bill. While I welcome many of the provisions in the Bill, I have some concerns and will take some time to briefly outline those concerns. I welcome the fact the …

I stress how welcome this motion is and express the Civil Engagement Group’s full support for it. I do not want to endlessly repeat comments that have been made so I will echo the gratitude expressed to those people who, over decades, brought us to this point, although I will not namecheck them all again. The motion has many different strands about the history of criminalisation of gay men in Ireland, the history of protest against LGBTQI+ oppression, and more. I want to highlight how the criminalisation of gay men…

I am delighted to be in the Chamber this evening to second Senator Higgins’s Bill. I want to begin by commending Senator Higgins and her staff, Sárán Fogarty and Ciara Gaynor, on their work in developing this Bill. We are very fortunate to have Senator Higgins and her team in the Oireachtas, given the work they have undertaken in developing their own legislative solutions to the problems we face in society but also in respect of the diligence with which they scrutinise and offer suggested improvements to Government…

I welcome the Minister of State. I second the Bill. I thank Senator Higgins and our colleagues in the Civil Engagement Group and also the staff in our office for their work in developing this legislation. The Bill interestingly captures much of the work the Civil Engagement Group has strived to undertake on electoral reform since the group's inception. Much of the debate today will be familiar to our colleagues in the Seanad and the Minister of State. The reason we tabled an omnibus Bill is that despite considerabl…

Hear, hear.

I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Education, Deputy Byrne, to the Chamber. I raise the issue of the lack of support provided to children and young people in disadvantaged communities. Such support would allow them to engage in curriculum learning. The DEIS system naturally tends to focus on what is required in schools as regards additional educational support. However, in many disadvantaged schools, there is a substantial need for other qualified professionals to support pupils, such that they ca…

The Minister of State indicated that the gap in educational achievement has narrowed. In fact, that is true only in respect of specific categories and metrics, in which we see a slight narrowing. My fear is that without an adequate review of DEIS that targets the children who need it most, and if we start framing many different schools, whatever bands they are in, as DEIS schools, the statistics will be altered such that we are not capturing the poorest and the most well off. In the case of access programmes workin…

The programme exists because it was a campaign issue at the time.