I was speaking about the general background to the particular situation we find ourselves in now. This amendment and the other amendments in my name and the name of Senator Boyhan are to try to put firm dates on the process of transfer. I want to expand the point. The Minister of State recently visited Dundrum. She did not see the interior of the old building for various reasons. I went to visit it when I was Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform. My purpose was to do effectively what the Minister of State …

I will not press the amendment. As the Minister of State can appreciate, the reason Senator Boyhan and I put down the amendment was so there could be a more discursive debate on the subject than would have happened if we simply had a Second Stage debate, which would have petered out after short contributions. In that context, I thank the Leader of the House for agreeing to an extension of the time for debate because it is useful that we discuss on the record the wider implications of what we are and are not doing a…

I infamously said that. That was false optimism on my part. We have to have places for serious criminals for whom preventative detention is important, such as gangland figures. We have already increased the remission for good behaviour from one quarter to one third, and all of this has been done by regulation, etc., but we should not be under any illusion that we will be able to reduce significantly the number of people in Irish prisons. We do not have a very high imprisonment rate in comparison with most places in…

I welcome the Minister to the House. I listened carefully to her and find myself in agreement with everything she said. Having been in her position for five years between 2002 and 2007, I understand completely the significant difference, as Senator Ward said, between what is available as a statutory power and the discretion as to whether it is used in any particular circumstance. I am sure things have improved since my day, but even back then the voluntary departure regime was ingrained into the system and involunt…

I agree completely with what Senator Buttimer has just said about FDI and Taiwan. In today's papers, I noticed that the Taiwanese foreign minister has asked for free countries across the world to show solidarity with them, which is so sad, because I visited the country recently and I saw a free democracy working perfectly. The minister said that there was an imminent threat of invasion from the Chinese mainland to suppress the last remaining piece of Chinese territory on which there is a functioning democracy. I ho…

Senator Higgins is being reasonable about this amendment, therefore I do not think I need to say too much about it. However, our immigration controls must be practical and workable. They cannot be an obstacle course of impenetrable presumptions against the proper conduct of immigration control. Therefore, it seems to me that were we to accept the amendment in its present form, it would effectively cast on the authorities an almost unbearable burden of proof in circumstances that would render the whole idea impracti…

I believe this amendment is reasonable. If we are to designate or dedesignate countries as safe countries for the purpose of this legislation, there should be an onus on the Minister who makes these decisions by statutory instrument to report to the Houses of the Oireachtas on the rationale of why a country has become safe or unsafe for these purposes. This does not prevent a Minister from making an order but provides a rational explanation as to why an order has been made.

The problem is that the Minister does this by statutory instrument. Frequently these Houses are not in a position to adequately understand the rationale behind a statutory instrument before it is made. Having an annual report is a good idea and should be acceptable to the Minister. If she has made changes to the list of safe countries, we should have an annual report on Ireland's approach and why particular decisions have been made. If, for example, Senator Higgins disagreed with a particular designation, she would…

In view of what Senator Higgins is saying, I agree with the Minister State that there should be scrutiny and reporting but the Houses of the Oireachtas will be in a position to do so without a plethora of reports and therefore, that seems reasonable. I want to note for the record of the House that the Leader’s amendment to the Order of Business has effectively been to guillotine the discussion on Committee Stage at 6 p.m. today and to provide for a debate on Report Stage on a subsequent day. I am quite happy with t…

I wish to make one brief comment on the Long Title, which will not delay us. The United Kingdom leaving the European Union is a real tragedy. Whatever the views other member states may have of this, Ireland should adopt the position henceforth that the United Kingdom would be very welcome back into the European Union as soon as the people of the United Kingdom so wish and that no obstacle should be put in the way of redressing the wrong that was done by the Brexit referendum.

I will support Senator Boyhan's amendment and make a couple of general observations. Something that has perhaps been accentuated by the pandemic, but was certainly happening for some time before it, is a change in people's general access to information. At one level, one could argue that the Internet provides extensive access to education, in that from one's living room one can consult any plan one wants to see, look at it in detail and, if provided with the facilities, feed in one's reaction to it without difficul…

I would say that in large measure all of those political organisations have shrivelled to a paper existence now. Whether it is the comhairle dáilcheantair of Fianna Fáil or the constituency executive of Fine Gael, these are the organisations that actually run political parties. Branches of these organisations do not meet in the way that they used to, and the clock cannot be turned back. People have different things to do with their lives today, and spend their time differently. Going to cumann or branch meetings wa…

She said "end the debate".

Let us go back to basics here. Currently, it is mandatory to have a public meeting. That is the law. This Bill is changing the law and saying it is no longer to be mandatory to hold a public meeting. That is the purpose of the Bill. The explanatory memorandum makes it clear that it is not intended as a pandemic measure. It is intended to be a permanent part of our law from now on that there is no obligation to have a public meeting. We are then left with the question of who will make the decision as to whether a lo…

I am not talking about the development plan. I am talking about the relationship between councillors and the executive. I am saying the executive is not always a kind of meek servant of the council. Quite the reverse is the case in that it can have its own agenda items. Senator Fitzpatrick knows as well as I do that, to some extent, one has to play ball. There has to be a bit of possession football both ways in order for the game to work at all. To go back to the basics, it is the case that we are being invited to …

Maybe Senator Boyhan would reflect on the fact that Senator Higgins is a lifelong opponent of limiting length of contributions.

We have been talking about the need for public consultation, public meetings and the like. Given that we are in the middle of a Covid-19 pandemic I would like to take this opportunity to draw to the Minister of State’s attention that there is one venue for public meetings in Rathmines Town Hall which, unfortunately, is used for ridiculous other purposes. A tiny group of ad hoc buildings have been built on the ground floor of a hall which is at least the size of this theatre, and bigger, which accommodated up to 1,8…

I welcome the Minister of State. I want to make a few general points about opening up the economy. I am not one of these sceptics who believes in deriding the measures taken by the Government but I am sceptical about blanket measures which are non-discriminating in the effects they have and are not based on proper science. I echo the remarks made by Deputy Eoghan Murphy recently in a debate on the response of the country to the Covid-19 pandemic. His words were well chosen and his points were well made. There are f…

I wish to move an amendment to the Order of Business to delete the motion relating to the sixth report of the Seanad Committee on Procedure and Privileges on Standing Order 45, which is scheduled to be considered without debate. I do so on the basis that this matter is one for which there was no adequate notice to my group of the proposal to further curtail the amount of time available to speakers on legislation. The effect of this motion is to reduce the amount of time for somebody proposing a Bill to eight minute…

I read the speech and I think it took approximately 20 minutes to deliver, and he was frequently interrupted. Our procedures now are such that we are reducing ourselves to almost the status of old-fashioned telegram boys. We are not debating things seriously or providing for serious debate. We are reducing the role of the House as a legislative organ, especially in respect of legislation, to practically nothing. The Leader should remember that this House is under stress due to Covid, but its function is not suspend…