Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

In fairness, the Minister convened a meeting with her officials last Thursday, which we attended. They expressed their intention to deal with this issue and expedite it before the summer. This is a big ask and a very tight schedule but we agreed to work together to try to deliver it and report back to the committee to seek its co-operation in that regard as well. In essence, the Minister undertook to ring me then, having made some investigation with the Office of the Attorney General and her own staff. Some work has been done on it but basically, what is being talked about is that the Department would draft a new stand-alone Bill dealing with the provisions surrounding maternal deaths, specifically mandatory inquests for maternal deaths. The Minister will go to Cabinet next week with a resolution. I do not understand what that means, but the drafting is under way and will continue. They do not expect this to take that long. It will be quite a short Bill with perhaps about eight provisions. The aim is that it would come before Cabinet the first week back after the recess, would be published that week and would reach Second Stage in the week of 21 June, Committee Stage the following week and Report Stage the week after. Then an attempt will be made to expedite it through the Seanad. That is a very tight schedule but they say they intend to work on it. There may be hiccups. I would be a little suspicious, not of the Minister but perhaps of the Department trying to restrict the definition of "maternal death". We might not be happy about that and it might throw a spanner in the works.

In fairness, the team has been made available to us. A member of the team has been liaising with staff in my office. The Minister undertook to ring me and she did so yesterday. She told me she had spoken to the Attorney General, and in response to my question as to whether the target of all Stages being passed by the summer was still achievable, her response was that it was but that everybody would have to be willing to engage. Can Committee and Report Stages be taken together?