I thank the Senator for raising this important matter in terms of the operation of the pledge process. Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine on 24 February, and the activation of the temporary protection directive shortly afterwards, my Department has worked intensively as part of the cross-governmental response to the Ukraine crisis. My Department is focused on the immediate, short-term accommodation needs of those who fled here. To date, 52,000 people have arrived in Ireland from Ukraine of which more than 41,…

An extension of a further six months provides very real certainty to Ukrainians and provides certainty to my Department. We are seeing situations where pledges have ended and people have had to go to Citywest thus requiring us to find new accommodation for them. We will find new accommodation for people but such movement adds to the pressures on the Department. I will certainly look for my pledge team to place some of its focus on the renewal of pledges while at the same time look to develop further pledges. In ter…

To keep the record clear, I have met with seven religious congregations or lay organisations, and the leaders of the Church of Ireland, in seeking a meaningful and significant response from them on redress. Those negotiations are ongoing at present. There has been no conclusion in those engagements. As the Deputy said, yesterday we brought forward the final redress Bill, which allows for a scheme that will cover 34,000 individuals, recognising the major impacts that mother and baby homes have had on Irish society. …

With the support of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, I achieved a €346 million increase in the budget for childcare. In 2023 we will spend more than €1 billion on childcare for the first time ever. That is going to deliver, on average, a 25% cut in fees for parents. Importantly for providers, this also allows us to put more money into core funding. Core funding in this academic year will grow by €52 million and in the second academic year will grow to €287 million. ECCE services are funded by core fu…

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." I am pleased to address the House on Second Stage of the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2022. The purpose of this Bill is to ensure Ireland fully transposes Articles 6 and 9 of the EU work-life balance directive, which are the final elements not already compatible with Irish law. The Bill also fulfils an important and long-standing commitment to extend the entitlement to breast-feeding breaks under the Maternity Protection Acts. With this exten…

I recognise that moving these 112 Ukrainians will have an impact on families and individuals. The reason for the move is the pressure on the State's measures to meet the accommodation needs of Ukrainian displaced persons and international protection applicants. The number of Ukrainians arriving in the country has doubled in the past month as a consequence of renewed attacks on civilian targets. International protection applicant numbers remain high. We continue to have a real difficulty in sourcing accommodation fo…

On behalf of the Minister for Health and the Minister of State with responsibility for disability, I thank all of the Deputies across the House for their contributions to this evening's debate. I also wish to acknowledge the points that have been raised about the significant and daily challenges faced by people with disabilities, their families and disability services. The Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, spoke about the significant funding provided by the Government for specialist disability services since 2020…

I welcome our guests in the Public Gallery as well and I hope they find their trip to the Oireachtas very interesting. I thank Senator Buttimer for raising this important issue, for advocating on behalf of the parents of the children attending the Morning Star preschool, and for emphasising the importance of this early education for those children as well as the support it provides for their parents. Tusla is an independent statutory regulator for the sector. It is wholly responsible for the registration of all ear…

As Senator Buttimer said, it would appear we now have a full application containing all relevant documentation. This is important and will allow for the application to be processed. Tusla is aware of the need to work expeditiously to ensure applications are processed, and the agency understands children will not be able to access education until this is done. Tusla's early years inspectorate is all about providing for the best form of education. Additionally, that we are also now beyond the late summer period when …

I note Senator Mullen's opposition to the section and the detailed remarks he made at our previous session. The provision under consideration came about as a result of careful deliberation on the constitutional, legal and clinical considerations arising from the recommendation of the post-legislative scrutiny report on the removal of section 85(6) from the 2015 Act to ensure that pregnant women who have an advance healthcare directive are treated equally to other directive-makers, particularly with regard to their …

What we are seeking to do with this provision is to reflect the situation where a pregnant woman will not be denied the benefit of her advance healthcare directive solely on the basis of her pregnancy. That is what the current provision allows for and following the repeal of the eighth amendment, that is a position we are moving away from. With the greatest of respect to Senator Mullen, the core of his concern is more of a reflection of the current law in the country on abortion rather than on the current law as it…

What the Senator has said about the protections that apply after 12 weeks is important. The consequence of the withdrawal of treatment on the basis of an advance healthcare directive does not constitute a termination under our law. Whether that happens before or after the 12-week period is not a termination as our law recognises and it is important that this is clearly stated.

On the presumption of care for pregnant women and the foetus, we could not proceed as the Senator is suggesting, that is, that we would legislate that a presumption would be made on a pregnant woman who has made an advance healthcare directive but one which does not specifically address pregnancy and that certain things would apply to her. We could not do so as that would be the creation of a new legal standard and it would be one specifying the treatment to be provided to a pregnant woman that would not apply to a…

For the avoidance of any doubt, where an advance healthcare directive is silent, the existing law and clinical practice apply. In this case, if the advance healthcare directive is silent about a consequence of treatment during pregnancy, the existing clinical practice applies and so the pregnant woman is treated equally to any other pregnant woman in that situation. There is no rebuttable presumption created against that. Where it is silent on the consequence of the woman being pregnant while getting treatment, the…

As the Senator knows, I was not here at the time of the 2015 legislation but it is my understanding from talking to officials that this provision was seen as a necessity that stemmed from the then constitutional situation. What we are doing now is ensuring that the specific restrictions on the applicability of an AHD to a pregnant person, which is understood as being necessitated by the previous constitutional position and as such put into the 2015 Act, is no longer required within the revised legislation. To speak…

Pardon?

That is okay. If the advanced healthcare directive is silent on the issue with regard to the interaction of pregnancy with the particular treatment, the existing legal and medical processes apply.

It means that the doctors and the medical team in that situation would undertake what they would normally undertake. They are not bound by any requirements of the AHD. They can treat just as they would treat in any other situation according to their judgment of the situation.

The current section 85(6) creates a specific standard that applies solely to pregnant directive-makers. The purpose of the removal of the subsection is to ensure that the current clinical practice applies to pregnant women. It is not being put forward as any sort of weakening of the protections towards a foetus but it allows for clinical policy, which is always more responsive to legislation, to be implemented by clinicians at a particular time. That is the direction we should be allowing. We should be allowing cli…

In terms of the position that Senator Mullen has taken and the concerns that have been raised by other Members, I will reflect on that and come back. We can discuss it further on Report Stage.