I do not wish to add very much to what the Minister has said. I thank her for her contribution and appreciate that she went to the Cabinet and got leave to support this legislation on terms, so to speak, that the Cabinet understood. However, I ask the Minister not to write that in stone either because there are issues to be teased out. I will give the Minister an example. If there were a homicide within a family where a father killed one child and another child is a witness to that, it cannot be the case that the m…

Next Monday week.

I will not oppose this motion. I admire greatly the commitment of Senator Currie to the whole concept of remote working. To me, it is something that will obviously be part of our future to a greater extent than was ever envisaged. As Senator Currie stated, the process has been dynamised by the Covid-19 lockdowns as people are beginning to see it is possible to work remotely and to shift work from centralised bases. I also believe it is a question of introducing flexibility and freedoms into our economy. As somebody…

I agree with the Senator on the matter. We have the Statute Law (Restatement) Act. It is desirable to have an official version of the legislation to which the ordinary man or woman can have instant access. If we take the money laundering and terrorist financing legislation as a code, it should be available at all times in a readable form without having to do research. I strongly support that restatement should be done as often as possible. I notice that the restatement provision, which was introduced, I think, in t…

When this amendment is made, this Bill will have to go back to the Dáil. I believe that everybody wants the Bill to go through quickly. We do not want to delay it in any way, shape or form. However, in those circumstances, I ask that the amendments and the debate on them here today be fully considered. First, if this amendment is accepted we are not operating on the basis now that the Bill will go through without ever seeing the Dáil again. If it is going back to the Dáil, I ask that the Report Stage, insofar as we…

I wish to comment on Senator Ward's withdrawal of his amendment. There are issues relating to politically exposed persons which I wish to consider. Senator Ward's amendment simply sought to consolidate the law in that regard, but in saying I agree to him withdrawing the amendment, I am not abandoning the issue of the need for reform in this area, which I will return to later.

I move amendment No. 7: In page 11, between lines 19 and 20, to insert the following: “11. The Act of 2010 is amended by the insertion of the following section after section 37: “Guidelines For Enhanced Due Diligence – Politically Exposed Persons 37A. (1) The Minister, where he or she considers it necessary or expedient, may, with the consent of the Minister for Finance and having consulted the Central Bank of Ireland and such other person or body as he or she considers appropriate, issue guidelines to the competen…

I thank the Minister of State and I understand that he could not take the amendment on board. I am not proud of any particular version of it but the idea that there should be some way in reserve of bringing common sense into the administration of this legislation is important. In the amendment, I tried to tiptoe through the minefield of not offending European law in doing it. I will say two things by way of a footnote to all of this. I welcome what the Minster of State is doing and thank him for listening to us. On…

I thank the Minister of State for his consideration that the provisions of section 40 seem to prevent any relaxation in respect of transferring the obligation to another institution in regard to politically exposed persons. I do not think that is necessarily mandated by the directive. In the circumstances, with the leave of the House, I am not moving this amendment.

I will briefly deal with the matter raised by Senator Fitzpatrick. There is on the Order Paper of this House a Bill to deal with a particular relating to the naming of child victims of crime. I ask the Leader to make provision for that legislation to be dealt with as a matter of urgency if the Minister is content to do so. I raise the question today of what happened in Brussels with the Irish protocol. I fully understand the Government does not want to make a song and dance about this that would be harmful to Irela…

This legislation is somewhat overdue. As Senator Gallagher notes, the delay in introducing it has resulted in a €2 million penalty being imposed on the State. Further enforcement action is in the pipeline, which is unfortunate. On the other hand, as the Bill is before us now, we must deal with it on its merits. I wish to indicate at this stage that I have no major problems with the Bill as long as its provisions will be reasonably enforced. The problem with money laundering legislation to date is that it is not bei…

With regard to the issue I raised and on which others have supported me, can the Minister of State indicate whether the Department is willing to engage in advance on draft amendments? It would be a big help rather than to run up against a stone wall on Committee Stage.

Was it not smoke signals?

I indicate my complete support for the campaign brought to public attention by Jackie Fox on the part of her daughter, Nicole. I commend Deputy Howlin and his colleagues in the Labour Party on introducing legislation to deal with this matter. What Senator Rónán Mullen has just said is true. We should not be in a position that we are pushing this through without adequate time to fine-tune it or work out what the small detail actually means. It is a pity that three years after Deputy Howlin introduced this as a Priva…

If one publishes an article, there is one standard for people standing over their remarks on the letters to the editor page and a completely different standard for people who make abusive, ridiculous and sometimes moronic comments anonymously. That is part of this failure to adequately balance anonymity and moral responsibility.

To follow on on the theme of transport, the BusConnects programme from the National Transport Authority is the subject of a major public consultation process and today is the last day for residents in Dublin to put in their observations on it. I want to make one comment of general, not local, application about that. There is a danger in putting traffic engineers in charge of a process who get it into their heads that bus transport in an urban area is the only solution and that other traffic such as lorries, vans an…

I welcome the fact that overnight that the four statues at the Shelbourne Hotel reappeared a few months after they were first mentioned in this House. There are two substantial matters I want to raise. The first is the statement in the newspapers today that the question of revised legislation on judicial appointments is to go before the Cabinet and that a new scheme for a judicial appointments commission Bill is to be considered by it. I welcome the fact that there is willingness to change from the previous model, …

Hear, hear.

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. This Bill raises some issues which might be surprising in one respect. The new facility in Portrane is almost finished or will be ready for commissioning very soon. It would be nonsense, therefore, not to provide for the relocation of the Central Mental Hospital to the site. I fully appreciate that point but I will make a couple of points. This Bill is being introduced to this House now when the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum has effectively been prepared for closur…

I move amendment No. 1: In page 3, line 18, to delete “shall be construed in accordance with section 4 ” and substitute “means 30 April 2021, or such other date as the Minister may fix by order”.