Before we proceed, while I do not want to stymie debate, we need to be conscious if we are in any way challenging the professionalism of people who are not in the House. As they are absent, they do not have recourse to defend themselves and make their case. I ask Members to be conscious of that in their contributions. I call Senator Martin Conway.

I call Senator Dolan.

Thank you, Senator.

As I said earlier, I am conscious of time given the number of people who want to speak. Everyone who takes an extra minute cuts into the time of someone else. We have a full agenda and a full list of speakers. I appeal to everyone to be mindful that the limit is six minutes.

The Leas-Chathaoirleach is spot on time – a man of experience, clearly. I call Senator Byrne.

I call on Senator Hoey. I am conscious that another three Senators have yet to speak so we have to keep tightly to the time limits so that we allow the Minister time to come back.

Before I call on the Minister to conclude the debate, I thank all of the Senators who contributed today and last week. Clearly, more would have liked to have contributed but because of Covid, and I want to stress this for people viewing, there are major restrictions on the number of Senators in the Chamber, which is understandable, but it is an important point. I again thank everyone. Clearly, the major echoing theme today is that we believe. That is the key message. We have heard terrible stories of trauma and peo…

I thank the Minister. That concludes statements on the report of the mother and baby homes commission of investigation. The Seanad now stands adjourned as per the Order of the House today. When is it proposed for the House to sit again?

I thank the Leader for setting out the Order of Business today. I suppose it is a particularly important day because we are going to be focusing on children. I also thank the Leader for inviting the Minister to talk about the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation and its report. The report is very profound and makes for very disturbing reading. We will have an opportunity to talk about that later. I thank the Leader for prioritising this and making it the first item on our agenda. I want to touch on a m…

I welcome the Minister to the House. As I was listening to Senator Pauline O'Reilly, the expression "Blessed are those amongst women" struck me because there are virtually no men in the Chamber. I am the only male Senator present - the Cathaoirleach of course is here too, as well as the Minister. For some reason that clicked with me and I thought about it and that is quite profound in itself. I thank the Minister for the enormous amount of work he has done. He has travelled a journey as well, as have so many other …

I take this opportunity to say a few thanks. What a year it has been. Little did we think this time last year that we would be facing into a 2020 general election and Seanad election and a huge intake of new Senators - what an honour and achievement for them, personally. I remember the people who contested an election but did not succeed on that occasion. I hope we will see many of them here in future. It is important that we acknowledge the difficulties and challenges of contesting any election but that is the gre…

I want to mention one issue which occurred to me last night when I passed the Central Bank and saw the enormous number of families queueing up for soup kitchens. We are so lucky to have the volunteers that do this work in Dublin, Cork and other cities. It was so sad to see. I counted more than 70 people. The thing that was really hard to comprehend was the presence in the queue of nine young children. I spoke to a man who said he felt ashamed to be there because he had had a job. He told me he rents a flat in Glasn…

I thank the Leader for setting out the proposed Order of Business today. The item I wish to briefly raise is a proposal that we would have a motion regarding the Joint Report on the Response of the Houses of the Oireachtas to the judgment of the Supreme Court in the Kerins v . McGuinness case. This is a profound piece of work. It has been a long time coming. The Cathaoirleach, as chair of the Seanad Committee on Procedure and Privileges, knows about this. This has come before us, we have no knowledge of it and ther…

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte. I was told a long time ago when I first came into these Houses to watch her because she was a fast learner. That is clearly the case. We have seen her tenacity, grasp of issues and determination in action in the past few weeks and well done on that. It is not an easy task to come into these Houses and to be a Minister of State. The Minister of State and her colleague from Waterford who we had in the House yesterday are a formidable pair. They are two people to watch…

I join other Senators in welcoming the Minister of State to the House. I will never lose an opportunity like this to talk about the mental health of people who come from prisons into the Central Mental Hospital. I know something of the Central Mental Hospital as it is located in the former administrative area of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, of which I was a member for many years. It is important in this ongoing debate about the Central Mental Hospital to make clear that it is a hospital, not a prison. Tha…

It was to be ring-fenced.

I second the amendment.

I second the amendment, which is also in my name. Like Senator Conway, I would like to hear the Minister of State, so I will not rabbit on. I wish to afford her an opportunity to deal with some of the points raised. I thank my colleague, Senator McDowell, for setting the record straight, refreshing our memories - as Senator Bacik stated, it was a long time ago - and reminding us of his and the then Government's vision for the Thornton Hall project. Substantial public moneys were spent on Thornton Hall. The site has…

Well done.

I welcome the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, to the House. I join others in thanking her and the Department for the manner in which they deal with their correspondence. All Members have ongoing public representations to make. I have always found the officials in the Department to be professional, timely and responsive and I ask the Minister to relay that to her senior officials. It is important to acknowledge that. We cannot say that about every Department but I can certainly say it about the Department of Social Prot…