Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the Chairman's comments. It is beyond shocking the way this committee has been treated in terms of dealing with this issue. I remind members that when we finished our pre-legislative discussions, the committee unanimously agreed that we should go forward. We also agreed that formal Committee Stage would be scheduled for today, as per the minutes, which would give the Department six months to bring forward detailed and comprehensive Committee Stage amendments. In the intervening time, we have mentioned the Bill on a number of occasions. When the Department officials were before the committee over six months ago, they made a lot of the points that were repeated in the Minister's letter yesterday and I had a feeling about it even then, to be honest. My office spent time preparing 60 amendments to fulfil our side of the bargain when we could have been doing other things. The Bills office, the Ceann Comhairle's office, the committee clerk's office, and the Dáil printers have all been tied up, right up to the last minute. Not only that, we must consider the women and midwives in the Elephant Collective and the husbands of women who have died, who had arranged to come in here this morning. We only got an official copy of the letter telling us that Committee Stage was not going ahead at 5.59 p.m. yesterday. It is unbelievable, particularly when the Ceann Comhairle had written about the money message issue, with a deadline of 12 April.

There are two issues here. One is the money message itself and the impact that will have on all Bills going forward. It is completely wrong but that is a bigger picture issue for everyone and it must be addressed. We must take steps to address that but the other issue is the Coroners Bill itself and what happens to it. The Minister telephoned me at about 4 p.m. yesterday, all apologies and the rest. She said that the Government wants to move ahead with specific provisions in the Bill as part of its legislation and wants to work with me on that. There was no point in me throwing the head with her. I said that was fair enough but I asked her how she could guarantee that this would be brought in by the summer, which is what she was saying. I noted afterwards that the letter said that it would be included in legislation to be "published" before the summer.

According to the discussion I had with her on the phone, however, it is to finish Report Stage by the summer. If the amendments I tabled today were passed today, it would be in by the summer and these people would get a mandatory inquest in cases of maternal deaths, which is what we say everybody wants. I do not know where we are with that because there is a contradiction between the written word and what the Minister said on the phone. She has indicated that, as did her officials last week, but it is a bit shallow of the Department. I do not mean the Minister is shallow personally, but everything the Department says in the letter, it said seven months ago in November. It said it was going to set up this elite team which would look at the coronial service.

The legislation dealing with the Coroner Service is now 55 years old. For 17 years, the Department has been looking at this issue but at one minute to 6 p.m., we get a letter asking us for a bit more time. It is beyond belief. I want my provisions brought in by the summer but I do not know how we can do it. The Minister has indicated that she will work with us but the timeline is not there for it to happen. Not only, by the way, have a lot of people made arrangements to come up, but the group of bereaved husbands, midwives and campaigners has got 20 local authorities to sign up to support this maternity provision which is urgently required. I am gutted but it is not unexpected. I do not know what to do. What can we do? I have to work with the Minister to try to get it in and I want to hold her to getting it done before the summer, but I do not know how that is going to come off.