I thank all the Deputies, in particular those who made their significant contributions yesterday. I thank Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, for leading off on Second Stage. During our discussions yesterday Deputies spoke to the problems of wardship, the extremely outdated nature of the system, the fact that it has been with us for more than 100 years. It is a system dating from the 1800s. Deputies spoke to the very real difficulties their constituents have experienced when they have been confined by the situation…

I move: That the Bill be referred to the Select Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth pursuant to Standing Orders 95 Standing Orders 95(3)( a ) and 181(1).

I thank the Deputy. First, I want to recognise the Deputy's consistent advocacy on this issue. The Deputy and Senator Ruane in the Seanad have both been strongly vocal on this issue. I know reports of historical sexual abuse in St. John Ambulance Ireland have been highlighted over recent years. As the Deputy states, the case initially concerned three men who made allegations against one named adult. Two of these individuals were under 18 at the time of the abuse and all three people and the accused were volunteers …

I cannot answer the first question. Dr. Shannon is an extremely thorough individual, as demonstrated by the reports he has done in the past and the quality of the work. It is important that we give him time to do this work. He made it very clear that he wants to engage with victims face to face. He did not want to do this through Zoom or online but in person. That is why it took some time at the start and why the interviews did not take place as soon as the review was initiated. He also wanted to get a very clear u…

I thank the Deputy for raising this important matter, to which I am responding on behalf of the Minister of State, Deputy Butler. The Government is committed to the development of improved community-based services, shifting care to the home and offering greater choice for older people. In budget 2021, the Minister of State secured additional funding of €150 million to progress the development of a reformed model of service delivery to underpin the statutory scheme for the financing and regulation of home support se…

I completely understand the frustration felt by the public health nurses to whom the Deputy spoke, the frustration and anger, probably, of the family he referred to for whom support was withdrawn, and his own frustration and anger in dealing with these situations. I know the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, sees the urgency of the situation. She met the chief officer of community healthcare organisation, CHO, 9 last week to discuss the issue of home care provision. There is a renewed focus on the advertising of ca…

I thank the Deputy for raising these important issues. As he knows, of the more than 33,000 Ukrainian displaced persons - which is the term I use rather than "refugees", because it is my understanding that is the term they prefer - who have arrived in the country, more than 23,000 are being accommodated by my Department in short-term accommodation. Within my Department, international protection accommodation services, IPAS, has contracted over 18,000 beds across hotels, hostels, student accommodation, guest houses,…

I thank the Deputy. He knows that the desire to look after everybody, irrespective of race, colour or creed, is shared by the Government as well. I am absolutely happy to engage with the Deputy and if there are difficulties, he knows where to find me. He can come have a word. As I stated, the community fora are up and running in counties all over the country and they are a good place to bring together the various statutory agencies. The Deputy commented about this being all about money. We should remember that in t…

I thank the Senator for proposing the amendment. It is similar to a number of amendments that have been put forward. We debated the issue of the language of "may" versus "shall" on a number of occasions. As we know, the Bill places obligations on relevant bodies to provide a summary of all relevant records they hold, including information to which the application does not relate. This amendment, in my view, is unnecessary as the relevant bodies will already be providing a statement in all cases where it makes sense…

The effect of the amendment, as proposed, is to insert a clause into section 10. The amendment would require that where no birth information is available upon application by an affected person, the authority must seize all records and conduct an investigation into what transpired. We had a fairly significant discussion during the last debate on the Bill on a similar amendment put forward by the Senator and Senator Higgins. We teased out some of the issues. This amendment seeks to provide that the AAI would seize an…

I thank Senators for their detailed contributions and consideration on this, which is an important issue. It is central to this legislation and central to that balancing of rights that we are seeking to achieve in this Bill and which has eluded previous Oireachtais over the last 22 years. I take what we do here very seriously and I take on board the contributions and concerns raised. I hope it is accepted that that is the case. Amendments Nos. 68 and 69 are the same and propose a mechanism of communication of a con…

On the question asked regarding a subject access request versus a request under this legislation, subject access requests are individualised and depend on data control around their determination. I cannot, therefore, say that every subject access request will result in the production of all information. What I can say is that every request for information submitted under this legislation will result in all information being provided. That is as much as I can say there. There may be a difference. The reason for this…

I thank the Senator. We have had a debate on the "may" versus "shall" language on a number of occasions. In legislation there is a distinction between the use of the term "shall" and the use of the term "may". The use of "shall" in legislation creates a compulsion, often on a State body, to act in a certain way in certain circumstances. While this may seem like a good idea on the face of it, as legislators we also need to be mindful of the impact this may have on a State body and the management of its operations. W…

I thank the Senator for tabling these amendments. Part of this discussion relates to the issue of the use of the word "may" versus the word "shall". I have made the point that we believe we are using the correct terminology. In reference to amendments Nos. 73 and 77, the Bill places obligations on relevant bodies to provide a summary of all relevant records it holds, including information to which the application does not relate. As such, the amendments proposed here are not necessary as relevant bodies will alread…

I thank the Senator for her amendments and for the clarification on the withdrawal of amendment No. 83. Part 4, which we are discussing here, is very important in terms of providing answers to family members of children who died in an institution. This Part provides for access to records for the family of those children who died in a mother and baby institution or county home institution. The necessity of these provisions featured very heavily during the pre-legislative scrutiny process. They were not referenced in…

My response will be similar to what I said on amendment No. 74 and relevant amendments. We have examined this matter and feel that the use of "may" rather than "shall" is the appropriate way forward and we do not agree to put an obligation on relevant bodies to search for information that another data controller has. However, they have an obligation under section 63 to assist relevant persons and advise them if there are better places to search for the relevant information.

I hope to address the concerns the Senator raised, although I cannot support this amendment. The decision to specify that the application for the tracing service should be made to Tusla was taken after careful consideration of how the application process for the various services provided under this legislation would work, particularly in respect of the user experience and ease of application. I am also mindful of the resources, systems and existing expertise Tusla has in terms of providing tracing services to indiv…

Section 42(2) in the Bill as passed by the Dáil provides a mechanism whereby the preferences recorded by the current national adoption contact preference register will be transferred to the new contact preference register to be established. This amendment deletes the part of section 42 that achieves this necessary function and does not replace it, leaving a subsection that does not actually do anything. All the amended subsection would do is say what will not happen. This may have been an oversight in the drafting …

I cannot accept this amendment, although I understand the spirit of it. Part 7 of the Bill, which relates to the safeguarding of records, has been carefully developed to provide clarity to the adoption authority and to the holders of records. The authority must have the ability to consider whether records are in fact relevant and I believe it is far more sensible and practical for the authority to have control over the type of record being transferred and the timing of that transfer.

I thank the Senator for raising these two issues in his amendment relating to an appeals and complaints mechanism and a review of the legislation. I will address both issues. As regards the first point, I understand, and I think we all know from our engagement on this issue over the past two years, in my case, and for a lot longer in the case of the Senator the level of mistrust that has built up among adopted people regarding their engagement with some of the agencies that have provided information in the past. I …