Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We need to delve further into what the Minister is saying as to what he will return with on Report Stage. The question is now whether I withdraw or press my amendment. I am of a mind to press it. Before I do, however, I will signal my intention to propose another such amendment on Report Stage. I will say that for the record. We will wait and see what the Minister has to offer on Report Stage.

On the issue of the 180 days, the reason for our amendment is that we feel strongly that the issues of temporary absence and the 180 days under section 13 are hanging like the sword of Damocles. There needs to be some reporting mechanism to speak for those people. I ask that the Minister come back on Report Stage with some language in that regard because what the Minister is proposing in section 13 seems too strident or prescriptive. It refers to a person who "was resident in a relevant institution for not less than 180 days, shall be entitled to a general payment in respect of the number of days, referred to in column 2of Schedule 2at any reference number, during which the person was so resident". What we are trying to do is to speak for those people who left, came back again and left again. They do not seem to be encompassed by what the Minister has brought before us. As my colleagues, Deputies Funchion and Cairns, stated, more than 60% of children are not deemed to be eligible for redress and not covered by this legislation. We have to find some way to address that. I feel that my questions during the Second Stage debate as to the modelling or cost permutations the Department has considered with regard to the exclusion of the category of people who spent less than six months in a home have still not been definitively answered. The justification for not including those people has not been provided. I do not think those people can be excluded. Whatever the reporting mechanism looks like, it has to include those people as well because they have a voice.

That is the bottom line.