I commend Deputies Pearse Doherty, Ó Broin and others in Sinn Féin on bringing this issue to the forefront of the political debate in recent months and years. What people saw in the past couple of weeks with REITs buying whole housing estates is a reflection of what is happening up and down the country. Many people have contacted me who have family members trying to buy homes. A man in County Leitrim contacted me the other day. He has two sons who he paid for to go through college. When one of his children was sick…

Sinn Féin will support this legislation, which addresses an issue that arose in many incidents across the country in recent years. The incident in North Frederick Street was the straw that broke the camel's back for many people. We have seen the actions of unregulated private security firms whose personnel were uncontrolled and untrained, unknown and often masked. There were incidents of security personnel coming into areas, sometimes from other jurisdictions, in a Wild West-type scenario, which is something that w…

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy James Browne. I take this opportunity to congratulate the Minister, Deputy McEntee, on the birth of her baby boy this morning. I wish them all the best for the future. Having children is one of the greatest adventures of life. The Minister, Deputy McEntee, embarks on a new adventure today. Sinn Féin supports the motion. The role of Europol in cross-border policing has developed over many years. It is vital to ensure we keep people safe everywhere. The world is now a much smalle…

First, we welcome this legislation, which as the Minister of State said is to deal with the Supreme Court case of Wayne Ellis v . the Minister for Justice and Equality in May 2019 and the anomalies that threw up. It is clear from that case, if we look at the reality, that what was really happening is a person's prior conviction for various offences was being used as means to give him or her a larger or more severe sentence for a particular case that was before the court when they were being convicted. It meant that…

I commend the Independent Group on bringing this motion. The issue at the heart of this is one of fair play for farming communities, particularly those on poorer marginal land across the west and the areas from the Minister's constituency right down the whole west coast and across all of the country. These are places where we have land in highland areas and where there are shallow bogs where farmers continue to farm. It is not as if these areas are left to run wild. We see that happen across areas of commonage and …

I was glad the Minister of State said that she was not opposing the motion. However, there were some things in her speech that were quite alarming if one sits down to think about them. She said that within 12 weeks somebody will have an appointment. This is 12 weeks of a family watching a family member in distress with worry and anxiety waiting to get an appointment. That that is what we have established in this country as the norm is a poor reflection on the health service that we had pre-Covid-19. Now we have the…

I also want to thank the Minister for the amendments. Section 252 of the Children Act caused a lot of turmoil for many families and people across the State over the past number of months, in particular. While advocating on behalf of everyone involved, we also need to put as much power as possible back in the hands of courts and judges to make the correct decision in the appropriate circumstances before them. I think that is what these amendments try to do. I welcome them and will support them. It is a good piece of…

While this legislation sets out to do something all of us would welcome in that it will protect renters and ensure they cannot be evicted because of the Covid pandemic, it also discriminates against other renters who may be evicted for other reasons. That is the basic problem the Opposition has with the Minister's legislation. It would be wise of him, in the interests of unity and bringing everyone in the House together, to ensure we can do something which represents everybody. It is totally unfair that people will…

We will support this legislation. We understand exactly what it is about and the good intentions around it to ensure that we do everything possible to mitigate against people who make bogus and fraudulent claims and try to defraud either insurance companies or indeed businesses that are doing their best to try to survive in the difficult climate that we are in. We also believe that it needs to go to Committee Stage and that considerable work is needed. I hope that the proposers of the legislation would not in any w…

The issue I want to raise is in regard to home help services in the north west. Many elderly people receive that service and benefit from it. However, during the Covid period, as we know, people looking for respite in a nursing home cannot get it as they normally would and are applying for community respite. I have one constituent - there are many people in the same situation - who has sought community respite but cannot get it. There has been no effort made by the HSE to recruit additional people to provide that s…

This is an issue that needs to be dealt with as quickly as possible.

I wish the Minister for Justice all the best for the coming months and every success in the future. I know that the work around this is urgent and it is not only because of the circumstances that have come up for the Minister. Throughout political life we see so many structures have been in place from a time when the world was dominated even more by males than is the case now. That must come to an end. We need to bring in a regime that has at its core equality and ensure that everyone, regardless of gender, has equ…

I move amendment No. 1: In page 9, between lines 25 and 26, to insert the following: “(9) In respect of relevant offences to which this Act applies, where an application under section 3 of the Criminal Law (Rape) Act 1981 is made during a trial, having not previously been requested or notified at a preliminary trial hearing, the trial court must be satisfied granting any application is likely to— (a) facilitate the expeditious and efficient conduct of the proceedings, and (b) result in the least disruption to the j…

I take the Minister's point that if a pretrial hearing occurs, if the defence does not notify the court at that stage of evidence relating to the previous sexual conduct of a victim, witness or anyone else and the trial proceeds, that it is not appropriate for the defence to seek to introduce evidence at that point. We want to see that happening at the pretrial stage. We say that if it does happen, it can only be done to facilitate the expeditious and efficient conduct of proceedings. The discovery of new evidence …

I will press the amendment.

I also support Deputy Pringle's amendment. What the Minister is saying is that this is a timing issue and three years is too long to wait. The argument has been well made that three years is probably the appropriate time to allow legislation of this nature to be enacted and work in practice for some time before assessing the workings of preliminary hearings. A reassessment of what has been achieved by legislation of this nature would address issues similar to that raised in our amendment, for example, the practice …

I welcome the Bill. The issue it addresses has been a running sore for many victims and their families since the ruling on the operation of the Children Act 2001 by Mr. Justice Birmingham. It was a decision that took many people by surprise by taking a narrow interpretation of section 252. However, the situation is what it is and we are where we are. We are now in a position where we are moving the matter forward. I commend the other Members of both Houses who have done the work to bring the Bill to this point. We …

This is something that goes to the heart of what people have been suffering for the past ten or 15 years. The Taoiseach is well aware of that. We bailed out the banks and got into such financial crisis in this country because of the very type of shenanigans that appear to have been going on in Davy. As well as the investigation that is being carried out by the Central Bank, will there be a criminal investigation into what happened here? Clearly, the individual at the start of this, who engaged Davy to provide a ser…

I was delighted to hear the Tánaiste's reply a few moments ago on the "RTÉ Investigates" programme last night. We all believed GDPR would protect people's identity and data, yet we find it is now being used to deny them their data. It is about time that we did something about this. I have been in contact with constituents who have been told they were adopted, but nothing else. There is a blank. The horror of that is really concerning. We have a system that actually denies people information about their own data and…

I commend Deputy Pearse Doherty on his work on this Bill and his tireless work in holding the insurance industry to account. It is in stark contrast to what this Government and previous Governments have done with the insurance rip-off that we have experienced across the length and breadth of the country. Young drivers have been punished over recent years and it is an ongoing problem. This particular issue sees people being punished for their loyalty. When they remain with a company and are loyal to that company, th…