Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The Senator is correct that time is of the essence. It is something that survivors have brought home to me with regard to being able to avail of the enhanced medical card or any sort of recognition scheme, and also the time to get the information that will be so valuable to them, which is why we all need to work swiftly together. I want to work with this committee on the information and tracing legislation. I have set out the timeframe for that. There will be much work for all of us when that comes up for pre-legislative scrutiny. The institutional burials Bill is coming before the committee soon. I look forward to seeing what members have to say on that and I take an open mind to improving that Bill on foot of the pre-legislative scrutiny.

The collaborative forum was picked by a good process to ensure that a wide range of interests was represented, but I think it would note itself that it does not represent everybody. I have tried to engage with as many groups as I can but there is a limit to my ability to meet people because we know that there are so many groups in this sphere. One proposal that I have spoken about, which is listed in the 22 action points, is the idea of a new method of stakeholder engagement in order that there is a better, resourced focal point for engagement between all the survivor groups and Government.

I had the experience of meeting 40 or 50 survivors in November and December, which was incredibly good, and they taught me so much. Doing that on a sustained basis to know it has been done regularly and to keep tabs on Government to ensure that all 22 action points are being put in place requires something more structured and organised. We have an idea about that in the Department but we will not have a monopoly on this issue and we are engaging with the collaborative forum on it. The Senator spoke about the idea of an independent advocate for one group of survivors. Perhaps there will be an advocate for a wider group of survivors, going beyond just women with an intellectual disability, as the Senator highlighted.