David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

My colleagues and I in the joint committee wish the new commission well. We thank the members of the former Human Rights Commission and Equality Authority for their work in the past. Regarding the staff of both bodies, we acknowledge that it has been a challenging time for them.

The committee had an involvement in the endorsement of the selection panel. There was an issue at the time, as I understand from UN sources, that perhaps the selection panel might not have been sufficiently independent of the Government; therefore, we were pleased to meet and engage with it and give it an all-party and no-party endorsement. I wished it a fair wind in its work, which was important. I thank the departmental staff for facilitating this and the role we were able to play, as a parliamentary committee, to ensure complete independence, both from a national and international perspective. It was something that had not happened previously and we were very happy to be involved in it.

I will hand over to my colleagues shortly, but there is another matter I wish to raise. Senator Katherine Zappone and other members have been discussing the idea of the committee changing its title to include human rights in it and, possibly, being involved at that level. It is something we are examining and perhaps the Minister might consider supporting members on that journey. Other parliaments have parliamentary committees that have oversight functions from a human rights point of view; therefore, it is something we are examining and discussing.