First, I commend all those who have fought and campaigned, and continue to campaign with the emails they are sending to us in this House and particularly to the Government. They are appealing to it, even at this late stage, to rethink what it is doing and not to deny the survivors of mother and baby homes the closure and justice they deserve. After all they have suffered and been through and all they have had to fight for, this day should be the day when they get that closure and justice. Instead, as the Minister w…

I thank Deputies Funchion, Sherlock, Cairns and others for their comments and contributions. For clarity, I want to respond briefly to something Deputy Michael Healy-Rae said. Of course, there were many decent people in the church and State, but there was a system that was official, orchestrated and systematic. It was approved and endorsed at the highest level of the State for most of its history and at the highest level of the church. Yes, there may have been individuals who were appalled, tried to do their best a…

So did I.

I just want to support Deputy Funchion's amendment. We have enough reason to worry given the Government has set its face against the appeals of survivors and people in this House to not exclude people. It has not provided an explanation for that because we all know the explanation, it would appear, is about penny-pinching on real justice and redress. That is in line with the sort of other issues we have been talking about in the Dáil over the last few days where the State has done everything it can to cover itself …

The point has been made by many here, again and again in this debate, and in previous debates. It is tragic and unacceptable that the Government is not willing to acknowledge the central point that is being made. I will take this last opportunity to dramatise the issue for the Minister about why the exclusion is so completely unacceptable, and fails to acknowledge the human reality that the separation of mother and child involves. One of the features of mother and baby homes is that when children were born in a hom…

No. I agree with the Deputy.

I support this proposal. People have waited long enough and there should not be uncertainty over getting a prompt decision. As has been said, we had reports and they were relayed to the Minister here recently. When was it we last discussed this? Was it a few weeks ago? We spoke about people having experienced significant delays in getting their personal information, so there is a problem. In locking this in, at least there will be a clear imperative and obligation on the Government to ensure people get decisions pr…

May I remind the Taoiseach that at the time he was signing off on secret payouts to people who had been forced to pay nursing home fees that they should not have had to pay, in order to contain potential cases being taken by other people who were entitled to refunds, ordinary people in this country were being absolutely crucified by the Government of which he was a part to pay off bondholders? The Taoiseach says he does not remember who briefed him or what the briefing was. I put it to the Taoiseach that he owes it…

You authorised the policy.

The programme for Government commits to a better quality of life and to addressing the cost-of-living crisis. One aspect of quality of life is access to sports events. It may be of interest to the Taoiseach to know that the biggest Republic of Ireland soccer supporters network is a group called the Ballybrack Seagulls, which has had an arrangement with the Football Association of Ireland, FAI, for the last ten years under which it buys season tickets and gets discounted tickets for young people. They are the fans w…

I appreciate that.

I was involved in organising, along with the Save Our Forests Save Our Lands campaign, a protest last week around the debate on Coillte's outrageous deal with Gresham House to buy up large amounts of land and forestry. The demands of that protest were strongly echoed by the Citizens' Assembly on Biodiversity Loss when it expressed grave concern about the Gresham House deal. It has been said, rightly, that the Forestry Act and the mandate of Coillte need to be radically changed in order that Coillte stops acting as …

We have exported loads of them.

If one were to believe the ads the Government ran about the cost of living that stated people were entitled to various supports from the Government, one would think there was a lot of support for people who need exceptional needs payments and are struggling with the cost-of-living crisis. My clinic was absolutely overrun in the days coming up to Christmas with people in desperate situations and it has become worse in the new year. People are seriously struggling. People need money for food and to pay heating bills …

Because of the State's failure and neglect, many children are literally having their childhood stolen from them. If the new subcommittee is to be of any use, it must do tangible things about that. I will provide two examples. On Friday of next week, a working family with two teenage children, one of whom has special needs, will be evicted from their home despite the eviction ban mentioned by the Taoiseach. The family has done nothing wrong. They have paid their rent and their taxes all their lives and they are goin…

The Minister may be aware that the Committee on Budgetary Oversight, which I am a member of, has been examining section 481 relief, which goes to film producer companies to make films. In return, those companies are supposed to give quality employment and training and comply with all relevant legislation. The Minister may have heard Equity saying that people are being forced to waive their rights to intellectual property, royalties, the equitable remuneration they are entitled to and so on. Film crew have said that…

Obviously, we all share in the celebration of the success of "The Banshees of Inisherin" and "An Cailín Ciúin", but that success, which results from performances, writing and directing as well as the crews who stood behind the cameras, underlines the need to guarantee, vindicate and champion the rights of performers, writers, directors and the crew who make those films and not to pass the buck, which the Minister has essentially just done. Those films and all other films in this country are funded with public money…

I spoke with Equity this morning. Time and again, it has made it clear that its members are being forced to waive their rights to intellectual property and to sign contracts saying they are getting equitable remuneration when they are not. When I asked the president of Equity directly what would happen if someone did not sign the contract, the answer was that the performer would not get the job. Regarding the declaration requirement that a producer company indicates to the Minister any legal or Labour Court issue t…

I return to the subject of my earlier questions on the film industry. I will firstly address copyright and intellectual property rights. The legislation sets out that "The right to equitable remuneration conferred by this section shall not be waived by the performer and the performer shall not assign the right to equitable remuneration except to a collecting society". However, the contracts that producers are forcing performers to sign state that the artist agrees that the consideration herein constitutes equitable…

I am. I will bring up the blacklisting in a second.