Senator Clonan took some of the words - not all of words - out of my mouth in his contribution regarding the overreach of the US Administration in the context of US visas. It is deeply concerning. I am sure most of us will know students who have gone on the J1 visa and have gone to travel, or indeed we may hope to travel ourselves, to the United States and now are fearful that they and we cannot. Irish students are facing a significant challenge in accessing these visas. The new requirements are invasive and underm…

Can I confirm that, in procedural terms, I should just speak about the amendment we are dealing with?

I thank the Cathaoirleach. I acknowledge Mary, Mary and Mary - I was going to call them the three Marys - in the Gallery. I hear what the Minister is saying about it just being a procedural aspect. We hear all the time from survivors that the schemes are inaccessible, difficult to understand, difficult to access and bureaucratic. I have a challenge with the idea that if no one has applied in three years, we can decide to wind it down. I refer to circumstances where we already have schemes that we know survivors can…

I speak in support of both of the amendments Senator Boyhan has tabled, especially about the report on the role of Sage Advocacy. I tabled an amendment that has been ruled out of order, which relates to this amendment. It called for the establishment of a survivor support and advisory office within the Department. I suspect it has been ruled out of order because of the cost implication, but it relates to the concept of having a report to assess what is happening with Sage. As has previously been said, when survivor…

I fully support Senator Ruane's comments, particularly on the use of waivers. Last week, Senator Ruane and Senator Higgins spoke quite clearly when they discussed the human rights aspect of waivers. When we ask people to sign waivers for redress, we are basically saying they have no other recourse for justice within that and that is not the way we should be doing justice in Ireland. When it comes to amendment No. 8, we spoke a lot last week about lessons, learning lessons and the importance of learning from the pas…

May I comment, a Leas-Chathaoirligh?

Amendment No. 8, which is in my name, is grouped with amendment No. 6. I was not sure how the discussion was being taken.

We did hear last week that the Health (Amendment) Act card was originally designed for hepatitis survivors and that, in the instance of survivors of institutional abuse, they might not have the same medical needs. We have heard reports and I went back and had a discussion with people and that is simply is not the case. Many survivors have both physical and long-term mental health conditions as a direct consequence of their time in these institutions. We are systemically failing them if we fail to provide this. A lo…

I am a bit out of breath as I was running all over the place trying to get from committees. I am very concerned about the continued renewal of this Act without any reforms. I understand the historical debates we have had, as I looked through the records. The question of reform is something that is discussed annually. The provisions introduced in the wake of the Omagh bombing were always intended to be exceptional and temporary. I have, therefore, great difficulty with the fact that more than 25 years later, they re…

I welcome the Minister of State. I think this is the second time he has come in for a Commencement matter for me and I really appreciate his continued engagement on international development. I have asked him to come to the Chamber today to address the deeply concerning developments regarding the EU corporate sustainability due diligence directive, which I will refer to as CSDDD. It is a law that Ireland has rightly supported, and represents a hard-fought victory for corporate accountability, human rights and clima…

I am grateful to the Minister of State for his commitment to those four areas and putting it on the record. I recognise what he says about simplification not being a race to the bottom and it is not about deregulation. We met Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment officials yesterday at the enterprise committee and had a good engagement with them there. I was concerned with their emphasis on the due diligence approach not being watered down. I disagree with that entirely in terms of the omnibus proposals.…

I will borrow some time from Senator Cosgrove, as she is not in the Chamber. She had a previous engagement.

We have heard phrases like "confusion", "uncertainty", "doubt", "ambiguity", "chaos" and "mess" used in the past week to describe the new rental regulations. When these words are used to describe new regulations, we know the Government is not doing its job. The Government has failed renters for too many years. While we in the Social Democrats support the expansion of rent pressure zones in principle, the corresponding measures in the Bill will contribute heavily to rent inflation and supporting investor funds to ma…

I move amendment No. 6: In page 7, line 18, after “2002,” to insert “such a service to be provided by professionals with expertise in institutional abuse and forced family separation,”. This amendment focuses on the quality of professional support that survivors receive, recognising their specific needs and the professional experience counselling providers and professionals should have in instances of institutional abuse and forced-family separation. In the past, we have heard reports of people feeling the standard…

I want to read the text of the amendment into the record myself, which is Senator Boyhan's recommendation for amendments that are ruled out of order. I recognise that there is a potential cost on the Exchequer regarding the HAA card rather than the enhanced medical card that is provided to survivors. I would like to speak about the experience of many survivors when they access services using the enhanced medical card. We have heard reports that the card is not recognised. Service providers in the HSE ask people wha…

I move amendment No 15: In page 8, between lines 15 and 16, to insert the following: “(2) Where a survivor living abroad receives the once off health support payment, it shall not count as income for the purposes of means tested benefits or entitlements in the country where the survivor resides.”. This amendment relates to the many survivors who, as Senator Boyhan discussed, may be living in the UK, other parts of Europe, North America or the world who were victims and survivors of the institutional abuse in Irelan…

I appreciate that the wording of the amendment would tie the Minister to obligations that are outside her remit. Before Report Stage, will she look at finding a wording that would hold the Department to a commitment to ongoing dialogue with neighbouring states, in recognition of the large number of Irish citizens, as Senator Boyhan described so eloquently, who were forced to flee there because of their experience in the State? I am asking that we explore options for wording that would express the Department's commi…

It is better than Stephanie. I get Stephanie a lot. The rise in hate speech in recent years both online and offline is very real, measurable and corrosive and causes great harm to those who fall victim to it. In 2022 alone the Garda reported a 29% increase in hate speech and hate-related incidents. Marginalised communities, ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+ people and people with disabilities are the communities bearing the brunt of this violence and hate speech. As legislators we have a duty of care to protect them not ju…

I will share time if the other Senator makes it in time. I thank the Minister. Grace was failed over and over again by the State. The people who were supposed to protect Grace failed her. The whistleblowers who came forward time and again were also failed. While we hope that Grace is now living a better life, the failure of the State has not ended with her experience in foster care. The failure of the State continued with the publication of the Farrelly commission's final report, a document that has completely fail…

You are welcome. We need comprehensive safeguarding legislation and we need to allow State bodies to conduct unannounced inspections, obtain court orders to enter and remove individuals where necessary, receive and act on reports of abuse and advocate for the rights of adults at risk, among a range of measures. We need mandatory reporting, much like we have with the child safeguarding legislation. The State is running at almost €600 million in terms of these tribunals. What we get for our €600 million is that lesso…