It is an extraordinarily long reply that tells me very little. The simple question at the heart of this Commencement matter is when will the pathfinder unit be set up? We are six years on from the recommendation and excuses are fairly thin. The Minister of State talks how about the establishment of the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science has necessitated some further consideration of the initial proposal. That was three years ago. What the Minister of State seems to be sayin…

I am glad to say that today is International Justice Day for Cleaners and Security Staff. There are protests and events happening right across the world, organised by our wonderful trade union movements. I am particularly proud of my union, SIPTU. I used to represent our contract cleaners and security staff. I am glad to inform the House that there is a protest taking place right now outside University Hospital Limerick. The protest is because the workers have still not been paid their pandemic bonus of €1,000. Con…

I wish to raise two issues regarding prisoners I know the Acting Leader will be very familiar that we regularly bring up the issue of prisoners and justice in the Council of Europe. I am particularly concerned about what is happening in Türkiye and have been for some considerable time. The rule of law has come under severe attack in Türkiye in recent years. Thousands of academics, opposition party members, and journalists have been detained or arrested arbitrarily. They are mainly those who show support for peace o…

I wish to speak to amendment No. 44. It is the only Sinn Féin amendment that has been allowed to be discussed today, at this final opportunity to discuss this Bill. I wish to read the amendment into the record, so that those watching at home can understand our position. It proposes that: In page 35, between lines 10 and 11, to insert the following: “(4) The Minister shall, within 6 months of the passing of this Act, lay before both Houses of the Oireachtas a report on the operation of the Mother and Baby Institutio…

Well said.

I wish to pose some queries and set out the Sinn Féin stance regarding some of these proposed amendments. We are concerned about amendments Nos. 2, 3, 5 and 7 in particular. I must be honest and say it looks like these proposed amendments are designed to restrict people's ability to apply for restitution. I wish to flag to the Minister that it is significant what Senator Boyhan has just said. He has flagged that the date beside St. Kevin's institution is incorrect. This proposed addition to the legislation concerni…

I very much welcome the Cathaoirleach's words regarding our late colleague, Mr. Paul Coghlan. I extend not just my sympathies but those of my Sinn Féin colleagues to Paul's family and friends, and the Fine Gael Party. Paul was always an absolute gentleman. He was a very warm human being. He was someone who went out of his way to make all of us welcome when we first arrived in the House. He was an incredibly knowledgeable man but he wore that knowledge very lightly. My abiding memory of him will be of the great crai…

I offer Madam President an especial welcome on behalf of my party, Sinn Féin. I very much welcome her very thoughtful speech, which hit a lot of key points. She spoke about values in particular. I have seen her country expound those values at first hand at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Cyprus has an excellent team out there. You see them really punch above their weight in standing up on important issues such as the one Ms Demetriou mentioned in her speech, the Istanbul Convention and issues o…

The Minister is very welcome. It is good to see her back. This is a very important debate this evening. There has been much debate generated by this Bill recently but the fundamentals of that debate do not stray far from the analysis Sinn Féin has consistently offered. Simply stated, there is a difficult balance between freedom of speech and inclusion. This balance interacts with itself as for freedom of speech and participation to be fully realised for some, hate and violence must be restricted and punished in som…

To begin with, I am going to say something I do not say very often: well said, Senator Mullen. Today I want to raise the issue of the State pension. A key commitment in the programme for Government is that the State pension should be benchmarked to 34% of average earnings in the State. This was a very welcome commitment, one that I think all parties would support. The problem of course is that we are nowhere near that figure. Right now, the pension is €265 per week. If it was at the benchmark of 34% of average earn…

I put on record Sinn Féin's support for both amendments Nos. 39 and 40. As amendment No. 39 deals with the issue of the 180 days, it allows me to again ask the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, the question which he has, so far, refused to answer. I will ask it again, and I also ask the Minister for the courtesy of a straight response. How does he justify excluding the 24,000 residents who spent less than six months in one of these awful institutions?

Perhaps the Minister will now answer the question I asked him. How does he justify the exclusion of the 24,000 people who spent less than six months in one of these institutions?

It is all very well for the Minister to say there is a range of responses in the Bill. I acknowledge this. However, he still has not explained the exclusion of these 24,000 people. He did refer to the fact that in his experience of meeting these people, they were much more interested in birth information. I do not know if that gives the Minister the right to decide that he knows what is best for those people. Certainly, the thousands of people who have written to the public representatives of all parties objecting …

For the record, the Minister is not going to answer the question.

I am sure the people watching at home can make up their own minds.

I want to put on record Sinn Féin's support for the amendment. This is a very important issue. I look forward to the Minister's response.

Sinn Féin fully supports the amendment. With the greatest of respect, I am not at all satisfied with what the Minister has said to date about these illegal vaccines and the responsibility or culpability of the huge pharma giant, GlaxoSmithKline. He seems to be saying something along the lines of, "Well, we are going to do something but we do not know what." We do know the facts. We do know that this giant company, alongside the institutions, is guilty. We know that. As there is no dispute around what happened at th…

No, not really but I will. Sorry, did Senator Seery Kearney indicate?

The Senator has made a good point and perhaps we can all take a five-minute break to lobby them. I back what Senator Higgins has said. Last year, GlaxoSmithKline had £29.3 billion of sales yet, from what the Minister has said, it clearly does not intend to pay a single cent to the victims of the illegal vaccine abuse. That is absolutely scandalous and surely the State has to respond.

I would like to speak to this section.