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

I will speak to amendments Nos. 8, 9, 20 and 26 together. This Bill provides for the establishment of an office of the chief deciding officer of the mother and baby institution payment scheme within my Department. The office will be overseen by a chief deciding officer who will perform the functions set out in section 9. Importantly, this section states that the chief deciding officer will "be independent in the performance of the functions independent in the performance of [these] functions" and that chief deciding officer will be assigned staff to support the administration of the scheme. On this point, I indicate that I may bring a technical amendment to this Bill on Report Stage to provide clarity concerning how staff will be assigned to support the chief deciding officer.

The approach, as outlined in the legislation, has clear benefits in respect of allowing the office of the chief deciding officer to draw on my Department's existing infrastructure and resources. This will support a speedier establishment of the scheme. The chief deciding officer will be accountable to the Secretary General of the Department in respect of his or her role as the Accounting Officer for the Department. If this approach were not provided for, a separate body or agency would have to be established to administer the scheme after the enactment of this legislation and this would delay the roll-out of the scheme.

To further confirm the fundamental element of independence, I draw attention to the fact that applicants have recourse to an independent appeals process by virtue of sections 23 and 24. Additionally, under section 25 a further appeal on the point of law can be made to the High Court. Again, on Report Stage, I am considering bringing a technical amendment to clarify the effect of appeals lodged in accordance with section 25.

The scheme, as we know, is intended to be non-adversarial in nature. It will not require applicants to bring forward evidence of abuse suffered. The staff involved in administering the schemes, especially staff who will have a public-facing role in respect of the lodging of applications, will be trained in trauma-informed approaches and sensitive communications and all the processes will be trauma-informed. This aspect will be provided for. I do not necessarily feel that it needs to be enumerated within the Bill. Provision is made in this regard and this work has already started in respect of the work we are doing to lay the groundwork for the scheme.

Turning to amendment No. 9 relating to the stated function of the chief deciding officer and the public information campaign, it has always been the intention, and, indeed, it will be necessary, that this campaign promotes awareness of the scheme in Ireland and abroad. I appreciate that the Deputy is drawing attention to the fact that "abroad" was not explicitly referenced in this legislation, so I am happy to commit to considering this further and, potentially, bringing back an amendment on Report Stage to confirm that it will be abroad. In the same way as our information and tracing scheme has been domestic and abroad, this scheme will need to be abroad as well.

Moving on to amendment No. 20, I accept in principle the importance of being specific concerning the management of information accrued through the administration of the scheme. This matter has been fully considered by my Department, since it developed the administrative and operational arrangements for the scheme. It will be dealt with comprehensively in the context of the requirements under section 46. In this regard, however, I also signal my intention on Report Stage to consider an amendment to the Bill providing for how the office of the chief deciding officer will be formally dissolved and for any residual functions of that office to be transferred to the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.

Regarding amendment No. 26, I am not in a position to support this amendment. It would be entirely inappropriate to delegate the function of regulating for the listing of additional institutions primarily to the chief deciding officer. Any such expansion of the coverage of the scheme would be a legislative matter. It would be a policy matter for the responsible Minister to consider. There would also be a cost implication, and this will, by necessity, also require the consent of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform.