Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 4:

“In page 10, line 36, to delete “ordinarily”.”

As an opening, I want to say that it is extraordinary that in this discussion that concerns the legacy of Church-run institutions for their control of pregnant women and their children, the Government is simultaneously handing over a €100 billion maternity hospital to a religiously directed body. This Bill deals with the most horrific of outcomes of a misogynistic system, where the State and the Church conspired to incarcerate and abuse women, many of them who were still children. Surely a glaring lesson from this system is the danger of allowing any form of religious control to shape medical decision making. The only thing that practitioners should be guided by is best practice and the wishes of the people concerned. Our horrific past links these two issues and it is important to note that.

Amendments Nos. 4 and 14 address the two main problems of the inclusion of the word “ordinarily”, in terms of being ordinarily resident at an institution. First, this restricts the people whose remains are covered by this legislation. The term "ordinarily resident" implies that an individual was a resident of an institution for a prolonged period of time. The length of time that a person was in an institution should not determine whether this Bill applies to them or not. For example, if a young woman was only in a home for one night and she died of potentially unnatural causes, she should be included in this legislation.

Second, this ambiguity arises because the term “ordinarily” is not defined in the Bill. During pre-legislative scrutiny, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, IHREC, and the Irish Council for Civil Liberties and other submissions, identified this non-definition as being an issue. It is unfortunate that the Minister did not resolve that matter. The definitions of the word “ordinarily” vary within Irish legislation. It is unclear what “ordinarily resident” means. I am suggesting the removal of the word “ordinarily” to clarify this restrictive ambiguity. In the Minister’s reply, I ask him to clarify if the understanding of “ordinarily resident” means an individual who spent any time, even one night, at the time of their death?