Before I came to the House to speak, I was thankful knowing the statements were taking place but it made me a bit nervous. I am quite anxious speaking today and quite nervous as the mother of a child with autism. This issue had an impact in our home last week even though we did not have to go to the courts. Not only is there a collective solidarity, a collective and shared understanding of how difficult life can be when accessing services and support, but there is also the shame and guilt one carries as a mother so…

I thank the Minister of State for attending. I am delighted to formally second the reading of the Bill. I pay tribute to Senator Higgins for her hard work in this area both in this term and the previous one. This is a complex area of public law. It involves much jargon, legalistic language and terminology that are often not instantly accessible. It may not be instantly clear to persons reading the Bill what practical effect the percentage changing of certain price and quality criteria in a public procurement contra…

Is that a gendered joke?

I request a debate on sport and Covid-19. I have been working with a number of sports clubs, especially clubs involved in youth sport, for the last number of weeks. All the clubs, from Lourdes Celtic, St. Francis Football Club and clubs in Arklow and Knocklyon, are concerned by the drop-off rate in child engagement on the pitch and even in the Zoom conversations they are setting up. I have written to the Minister of State, Deputy Chambers, on this issue and we should have a conversation about it. The risk of Covid-…

I move amendment No. 4: In page 6, between lines 2 and 3, to insert the following: “Reporting 4. (1) The Minister shall, not later than 12 months after the passing of this Act, carry out a review of the operation of this Act. (2) Without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, the Minister, as part of the review, shall: (a) conduct policy and budgetary analysis on a potential further extension of leave under this Act, from five weeks to nine weeks; (b) consider the degree to which EU Directive 2019/1158 requi…

I thank the Minister for his response and his engagement. I accept and trust what he says in terms of the continued engagement with the committee and individual Senators. I will not press the amendment. I look forward to working over the next year or so to complete everything that is mentioned in the amendment.

I thank the Minister for being here. I am going to heavily focus my contribution on women who have been impacted by Covid. Before I do so, I want to acknowledge that when one talks about gender quotas, gender balance on boards, and the gender pay gap, for example, it sometimes feels like those issues are far away from me, my life and where I have come from. These are conversations that we definitely do not have in my community. If we really want to look at the intersectionality of life, women and International Wome…

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the Seanad today. I raise a crucial matter relating to Ireland's efforts to combat climate change, particularly the absolute necessity to ensure significant and tangible reductions in the emissions of greenhouse gases for the protection of our natural environment, the health and well-being of our citizens and the prevention of catastrophic climate and biodiversity collapse. As the Minister of State is aware, the Environmental Protection Agency released a report last week …

I thank the Minister of State. I welcome his contribution, especially the reference to working together. I know there will be differences in the way we view this moving forward but it would be good to find common ground and work from that point. I have one question. If needs be, can he commit to going further than the EU legislation? We have been operating under an EU directive on non-financial disclosures on companies since 2017, which has been inadequate. The Minister of State cannot pre-empt what the Commission …

I join my colleague, Senator Black, in raising an extremely concerning report from the Irish Examiner over the weekend with regard to the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes. The report states that the commission has destroyed audio recordings of the interviews given by survivors of the mother and baby homes and that the oral testimony of evidence given to the commission's confidential committee no longer exists. In light of the many serious concerns raised about the contents of the commission's …

I thank the Minister for coming to the House. I will begin by welcoming what I believe has been done right in housing since the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic last year. I welcome the fact that, finally, the Department and the Minister moved to introduce an eviction ban, despite many years of claiming that such a ban would be unconstitutional. I reject the notion that such a ban must be tied to the existence of level 5 restrictions. No person should be evicted from his or her home while this pandemic is ongoing…

What about the human rights issue I raised?

I thank the Minister for being in the Seanad today. I sat down to read this report last week and I have been reading for days. I read it with a view that I was a pregnant, unmarried minor, albeit only 20 years ago. I also read it as someone who would have been deemed an illegitimate child when I was born in the early 1980s. When a family is given support and not punishment, the circumstances are very different. I welcome the State apology to survivors of the mother and baby homes. I cannot, however, welcome the rep…

I have two points, one being on the matter of the new Standing Order, which I acknowledge is included on the Order Paper today. I thank the Cathaoirleach for the initiative on bringing in outside constituencies in this way. It concerns sexual harassment and bullying within the university sector but, most important, the use of non-disclosure agreements, NDAs, not only to move people around a university but also as tools to silence victims of abuse or bullying. Over the past few years, many people from various univer…

I thank the Minister of State for being here this afternoon. The Oireachtas scheduling means that, though I will speak to the amendments, realistically I cannot push them. I do not want to hold the Bill up and I am the only one who has tabled amendments to it. When the domestic violence legislation was going through, I took a back seat because of the impact some of the conversations in respect of coercive control could have on me. I got a phone call about the images that were shared online before the story went liv…

I move amendment No. 1: 1. In page 3, to delete lines 19 to 27, and substitute the following: “ “intimate image” means a visual recording of a person made, with or without the consent, by any means including a photographic, film or video recording (whether or not the image of the person has been altered in any way)— (a) (i) of his or her genital organs or anal region or her breasts (whether covered by underwear or bare), (ii) in which the person is nude, is exposing his or her genital organs or anal region or her b…

In putting forward these amendments, as I outlined on Second Stage, it is in no way to put out the message that the Bill is flawed or does not fulfil its intentions. It is always good for legislators to have an opportunity to engage with the legislation and to at least signal our future intentions on how we feel the legislation should be improved. The fact is that there will be a review within three years and we can examine the evolution of the Bill within that time. We must also acknowledge that even since the bod…

I move amendment No. 5: In page 4, line 5, to delete “and” and substitute “or”. On the surface, amendments Nos. 5 to 8, inclusive, all relate to small changes to the wording of section 2 on the distribution of intimate images. However, they are important in that the overall intent is to make the legal threshold at which distribution becomes a crime more accessible and easier to prove for the victims of these offences. I am grateful to the National Observatory on Violence Against Women for calling for these importan…

Senator Ward was correct in what he said regarding proportionality. I did not have the time to rewrite a section between the Bill being passed in the Dáil on Thursday and being taken in the House today. I will get that little dig in there. As Senator Seery Kearney said, I would look forward to amending the legislation through miscellaneous provisions to provide for lesser offences where we could decouple some of that language. Regarding what the Minister of State said concerning "seriously" and "causing offence" ve…

I withdraw the amendment.