Amendments Nos. 27 to 29, inclusive, are related and may be discussed together by agreement. Is that agreed? Agreed.

Amendments Nos. 30 to 32, inclusive, are related and may be discussed together by agreement. Is that agreed? Agreed.

Does Senator Higgins wish to move amendment No. 34?

Now.

To be fair, the Minister has covered absolutely everything I wanted to say other than thank you. He is the only person left out in that regard. He has shown great commitment and passion to bring about the solace he speaks about. I, too, pay tribute to Catherine Corless. I think of the Preamble to the Constitution and of the concept of cherishing all the children. I hope the decision today will bring forward the spirit that underpins our Republic, which involves cherishing all the children, and bring dignity and res…

I understand why there is a push for employees to have 100% cover. However, as Senator Currie said, it is about striking a balance, particularly for small childcare providers. In order to open a room to provide childcare spaces for parents, employers have to meet staff to children ratios, therefore, they have to have cover. They do not have room to avoid making sure that there is staff cover in place. Presumably they will get it and, thankfully, there will be moves in that direction also. For small childcare provid…

I very much welcome this amendment. I had the privilege of speaking on this on Second Stage when I touched on the fact that I am married to someone who worked in the hotel and hospitality industry and who was involved in the hotels, restaurants and catering branch of what was originally the Irish Transport and General Workers Union, ITGWU, which became SIPTU. In that context, he avoided particular establishments around Dublin because their owners would dip into tips and use them for payment of wages. How scandalous…

It is unenforceable but it is possibly indefensible also. How does one prove that something happened or did not happen when it comes to cash? One could potentially leave an employer open to false allegations that he or she could not defend whereas at least in other provisions in employment law the onus is on the employer to prove it. They would not be able to prove that tips came or did not come. I can see how it would be unenforceable.

On the proposal to delete the word "may" and substitute "shall", I understand why the amendment is being proposed. However, I cannot support it. We need to allow a latitude that intervention does not occur because it may be the desire of the mothers of babies interred for there to be no intervention. I can think of instances such as Bessborough where mothers want to be able to sit beside where their baby is interred and there are many others in a similar situation. To substitute the word "shall" would oblige the Mi…

I support the Minister's response that the amendments are not necessary. Recommendations were contained in the PLS report and the Minister took them on board. A lot of time was spent considering the response of the State, in conjunction with families, with regard to remains. Having support for the families does not begin on the floor of this House. There was extensive engagement over a very long period in the pre-legislative scrutiny phase relating to this Bill. Many detailed and thoughtful recommendations were mad…

During pre-legislative scrutiny there was a lot of discussion on the types of disciplines that should be included. A decision was made not to expressly recommend anything because a wider scope allows for the growth of scientific knowledge and so different types of disciplines that, as yet, we do not know or have not been named. As a consequence, there was a recommendation to have appropriately qualified persons to allow the scope to be as wide as possible and for the legislation not to be overly prescriptive becaus…

Next Tuesday.

I rise today to raise the issue of childcare and the understanding regarding the forthcoming core funding changes in payments, concerns that have been raised around early childhood care and education, ECCE, funding and also awareness of the sustainability fund. In that regard, I ask that we have statements on childcare funding with the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman. It is important that this House has that debate and that we get an opportunity to express the concerns and hear from the Minister about issues regarding th…

The passage of the Bill through the Houses have been long awaited. These days have been long awaited by the families who are seeking answers and reunification with their loved ones. I will begin by recognising the extraordinary work of Catherine Corless who brought this issue into the public consciousness and her fastidious absolute determination to find and expose the truth. We owe her a debt of gratitude. This was reflected in the Minister's contribution. I thank the Minister because he has approached this with e…

Next Tuesday.

I commend the Independent Senators on putting this motion forward. There is no question that there is an incredible shortage of neurology nurses throughout the State. However, I wish to mention something that I am sure Members have mentioned, although I apologise that I have not been able to follow the debate. It is essential that in places such as St. James's Hospital we have an additional ten neurology nurses at the very minimum. Such a leading centre in the country having a shortfall has a devastating effect on …

I welcome the Minister of State and all our beekeepers and scientists. I apologise because I was in committee and could not come to the presentation this morning. It is my great honour to have been invited by Senator Martin to be a co-signatory of this Bill. On the day I received his email, it brought me back to being a child. I have beekeepers in my family. I do not claim to know anything about beekeeping except having been a child standing and watching my family members as beekeepers. I always visit the stand at …

I thank the Senators for the amendment. In principle, I support the idea. I can think of nothing worse than to be told there is no information or birth information available. The sentiments of the amendment are too strong, in that the wording presupposes that there might be something to seize, which raises an expectation that cannot be met. That is why I am cautious about the amendment. However, we need some sort of mechanism. We cannot just say there is nothing there. People need to be brought into a process. Ther…

Perhaps we need to look at guidelines or a statutory instrument under the Bill. Perhaps the functioning of the specialist tracing team needs to be spelled out more clearly in terms of how it is going to function. If there is no information and there has clearly been a wrongful registration, be it that whatever happened was done illegally or mistakenly, a specialist tracing team was envisaged by the Minister in his own undertakings and arising from the Conor O'Mahony report, but we also have the possibility of a fur…

I should probably begin by taking responsibility. In the course of pre-legislative scrutiny, I first floated the idea of the registered letter because I looked to the courts and the mechanism there. A registered letter is sufficient in any legal proceedings as a demonstration of service of documents, proceedings and summonses. If a registered letter is sufficient to go before a court and a failure to attend a court case regardless of the issues at hand may result in a case being struck out, I did not see why it wou…