I wish to take this opportunity to put before the House the significant concerns of many people regarding the proposed reforms to the equality Acts. I understand the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, has set a deadline of 29 November for the consultation on the Acts and I wish to identify for the record a very important issue that has been identified with the proposed changes. One of the proposals put forward by the Minister is to review the grounds covered by the Act, including the proposal that gender identity be added …

I thank the Minister for his comments. I understand the difficulties that youth and trans people have with regard to their sexuality. I have had many children in my care who may have been even thrown out of their homes because of their sexuality. I have had a number of trans children in my care as a foster parent. Obviously, I have raised some issues this morning that have caused deep offence to the Minister and to the trans community, which I certainly do not wish to do. However, I look forward to receiving that r…

My point this morning is all about the safeguarding of women and children here.

It nearly feels like a Fianna Fáil Ard-Fheis in here, as I remember from many years ago.

It is wonderful to have the Taoiseach in the Chamber. We would love to see more of him. He is very welcome here at any time. We would have liked if his appearance before us had occurred during happier times. With the reimposition of restrictions and the prospects of lockdowns not being ruled out in the run-up to Christmas, it certainly feels like Groundhog Day again. The vaccinations have not been the medical or political panaceas it was hoped they would be. The Cabinet's elementary plan of lockdown and wait for th…

In Duleek.

Do not forget secondary schools.

Yesterday, €800 million was allocated to the mother and baby homes redress scheme, and rightly so. What have we learned as a nation, however, and are the mistakes of today going to be our horror stories of tomorrow? Last week, I was horrified by the report from the national review panel on children and young people in State care. Since 2010, 236 deaths have been reported, and 56 of these were through suicide. Last year, 30 children died in care, seven through suicide. One of these, whom I knew through the emergency…

I welcome Deputy Lawless to the House. I thank the committee for its work to date on this report. I thank Senator Hoey for her testimony. I apologise to her on behalf of each and every one of us as elected Members that she was not looked after and that she did not get justice. Many of the 95% of women of who are being raped, sexually abused or sexually assaulted will not get justice, and that is absolutely scandalous. We should not stand by that today nor allow it to happen any day. It must not be the case they wil…

I happily support the amendment. I also support the recommendations made by the AILG and LAMA regarding the Bill. The amendment ensures the adherence to the relevant development plan or local area plan is carried over from the Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancy Act 2016, which established the SHD process and brought in the process for large-scale residential developments, LRDs. Noticeably absent is section 5(6) of the 2016 Act, which allows for the bypassing of this agreement. It is not appr…

I concur with Senator Boyhan. Amendment No. 15 is in the same vein as the previous amendment from the Independent Group. It would present the documents detailing an application for the LRD to the elected members of the local council. This will enable the members to have informed discussions regarding the LRD and the benefits it would bring to the area, as well as serving to highlight areas of possible concern. The considered views of local elected representatives must be present in any decision-making process whose…

I call for a debate on the reinstatement of the Special Committee on Covid-19 Response. It has been mentioned a few times since its dissolution on 8 October 2020, 11 days before another level 5 total lockdown was imposed on this country. More than a year later, our case numbers are three times what they were then and the dedicated Covid committee, established to consider and take evidence on the State's response to the Covid-19 pandemic has remained disbanded having been forced to give its final report less than ha…

The Minister is very welcome to the House. As I read through this Bill, I was reminded of Senator McDowell's Children (Amendment) Bill 2020 which passed into law in April 2021. That was a targeted Bill, urgently drafted to remedy an obviously unintended legal situation. There was a universally recognised need for that Bill by the public but such does not seem to be the case with this Bill. The calls for protest prohibition zones, which, let us call a spade a spade, is what they are, do not appear to be coming from …

Of course, people should be able to visit healthcare buildings without harassment but the need for this Bill is certainly subject to scrutiny. The Department of Health has stated that protests outside healthcare facilities are limited and that where problems do arise, there is existing public order legislation in place to protect people accessing services, staff and local residents. Indeed, the Garda Commissioner said the same in a letter to the then Minister for Health, Deputy Harris. He outlined that the introduc…

This Bill has been introduced by Sinn Féin, a party that sang the praises of Kevin Barry last week, a man who was executed with his rosary beads in his pocket. There is more than a whiff of anti-Christian sentiment-----

I did not interrupt you, Senator Conway.

I did not interrupt others. Where is free speech? If I cannot deliver my speech-----

Thank you.

There is more than a whiff of anti-Christian sentiment about it and I wonder if the proponents of this Bill would be so quick to encroach on the faith practices of other major world religions. The right to protest and assembly cannot be limited to what one wants. The law must treat all equally. The exemption for industrial action in this Bill makes a farce of it. Are Senators saying posters extolling the value of dignity for all human life are to be made illegal but placards, soapboxes and megaphones deployed in th…

Is that agreed? Agreed.