Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
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We are now in public session for a meeting of the Joint Sub-Committee on Public Petitions.

Petition No. P00073/12 from Mr. Arindam Halder is regarding what the petitioner sees as an unjust hike in the registration fee by the Garda National Immigration Bureau. We have had a chance to deliberate on this, so are there any recommendations or proposals?

Susan O'Keeffe (Labour)
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This petition is obviously a matter of importance concerning the rise in the registration fee by the Garda National Immigration Bureau. However, we think it is not appropriate for this committee, as no particular work has been undertaken by the petitioner in the first instance. I do not believe we should refer the matter to another committee. However, we could inform the petitioner that certain work has been done by the Department of Justice and Equality. If he wishes to pursue the matter perhaps with his own university or with other public representatives, they may be able to assist. As a courtesy we are able to tell him what the position is concerning the Department of Justice and Equality.

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
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Is that agreed? Agreed.

The next petition is No. P00076/12 from Mrs. Sheila Ferris suggesting that greater use be made of resources in community employment schemes in the year of The Gathering, and that historical groups in local areas transcribe, collate and make available electronically all church records held in each parish, and also investigate how these records could be made available from a centralised data website. The petitioner is of the view that if this suggestion was introduced, it could keep the momentum of The Gathering running for longer than one year. I will now open it up to the members. We have had a chance to deliberate on this matter.

Susan O'Keeffe (Labour)
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This petition is very interesting and it is great to see members of the public coming forward to engage with The Gathering and seeking to find ways to use pre-existing resources to support both The Gathering and, as this petitioner suggests, other future activities. Perhaps it is appropriate to pass to the petitioner the information that has been gathered on behalf of the joint committee but to declare the petition closed because in a way, it is a proposal rather than a petition and does not quite fall within the joint committee's remit. Her idea certainly can be used, perhaps through the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
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Is that agreed?

Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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That is a good summary of the position. I agree it is great to see that members of the public have such interest and are prompted by events such as the The Gathering. However, as Senator O'Keeffe has indicated, members could regard it as being closed from the perspective of further research.

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
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Is that agreed? Agreed.

We will now move on to petition P00081/12 from Mr. Stephen Dwan, who wants video games to be included in the English curriculum. Members have had a chance to consider this petition and I invite them to make recommendations.

Susan O'Keeffe (Labour)
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I suspect the petitioner's idea that video games should be included in the English curriculum would cause great concern and debate because I am sure a number of people would argue this should not be the case. However, he has an interesting idea and this is a good example of where committees in the Oireachtas can be joined up because the Joint Committee on Education and Social Protection is having a meeting on 13 March relating to digital literacy and e-learning. It is appropriate that Mr. Dwan's petition should be passed to that joint committee as it is already part of its work programme. He would welcome the fact that it would be discussed at the aforementioned committee and members therefore should close the petition, while explaining to Mr. Dwan what has happened to it.

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
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Is that agreed?

Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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That sounds like a very good course.

Derek Nolan (Galway West, Labour)
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The petitioner wrote that he just wants to make school a lot more fun, which we can all accept.

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
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We can all agree with that proposal. That is great and the joint committee will thank Mr. Dwan for his petition.

The next item is petition P00002/13 from Mr. Joerg Thieme regarding the implementation of legislation to permit the right to an abortion in Ireland. This petition has 75 other signatures along with that of Mr. Thieme. Again, we have had a chance to deliberate on the matter and I will now open it up to members.

Derek Nolan (Galway West, Labour)
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As members are aware, another committee is dealing with this issue. It is considering legislation and so on and I suggest we bring Mr. Thieme's view to that committee and that this will be sufficient.

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
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There has been considerable deliberation in the Houses on these matters and the Government will move soon. Consequently, we will correspond with Mr. Thieme to let him know we have passed on the concerns expressed by him and the other signatories, which will be taken as part of the deliberations.

Susan O'Keeffe (Labour)
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This is indicative of the fact that the joint committee is becoming a visible place to which people bring current issues. This is the joint committee's first petition to be so current in respect of people responding and discovering the joint committee's presence. It is good that members are able to pass on this petition to the Joint Committee on Health and Children as the most appropriate place for it to be dealt with.

Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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I am sure he was aware at the time that during the hearings held by the other joint committee, there was an opportunity to make submissions. All parties and people in the country could make submissions if they so wished.

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
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Absolutely. We will close this petition and note the joint committee has agreed that all petitions it has discussed are closed. It has been agreed to close them and a course of action has been agreed on. This petition also is closed.

Susan O'Keeffe (Labour)
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I must leave for a vote.

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
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That is no problem and I thank the Senator. For the purposes of clarity, I will read into the record that the joint committee has agreed a recommendation that petition P00073/12 is closed. Members also have agreed a recommendation that petition P00076/12 is closed. As just stated, petition P00081/12 is closed and petition P00002/13 is closed.

We will move on to petition P00075/12. While a number of other petitions are linked to it, we will take P00075/12 first. The other petitions are petitions P00074/12 and P00064/12, and all pertain to the same theme. As members have had a chance to deliberate on all of them, I will take petition P00075/12 first and open it up to the floor.

Derek Nolan (Galway West, Labour)
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This certainly is a very important issue for the petitioner, Ms Halpin, who as far as I can see from the petition, has put a lot of work into it. From what I can discern, she was seeking to have withdrawn a foreshore licence or to challenge the manner in which it was granted. I understand from the secretariat, which has worked on this petition, that the licence in question has been surrendered and, consequently, the exact issue has been remedied. However, there is also an issue here in respect of the planning process and how consultation can happen very subtly and often without public involvement, which contradicts the entire concept of public consultation. This issue was raised with the joint committee approximately two weeks ago in respect of a planning application for wind farms in Moycullen, west County Galway, and at that time, members agreed to examine the issue of public consultation in the planning process. That element of the petition under discussion could be linked with the earlier petition and the two could run side-by-side.

Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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Both those petitions were in the area of natural resources. It is interesting to see the importance of getting, to use that phrase, the playing pitch properly marked out and understood and having everyone who will be affected properly informed. The fact the company has withdrawn its licence means there will be a much more focused effort to get corrected those starting points and the blackboard cleaned properly for the purpose of bringing it forward again.

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
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The joint committee is agreeing to the recommendation made by Deputy Nolan. The next point to make concerns petitions P00074/12 and P00064/12, both of which are inadmissible. The reason for the inadmissibility of P00074/12 is that it has been raised with the Ombudsman and any matter that is currently under her eye is not something members will second-guess or with which they will deal. Petition P00064/12 is inadmissible because the petitioner has not demonstrated that she has taken all actions to raise this issue herself with the appropriate bodies. However, in respect of the aforementioned petitions P00074/12 and P00064/12, I propose that the joint committee will correspond to the effect they were inadmissible while also making the petitioners aware of its decision in respect of petition P00075/12, which is linked to their concerns. Is that agreed?

Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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That is agreed. The joint committee will give them a total panorama of the position.

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
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Absolutely, showing the present position.

I thank colleagues for their co-operation, as that deals with all the petitions before the joint committee today.

The final item concerns the announcement last night by the Minister for Health and his Department that the two schemes pertaining to the motorised transport grant and the mobility allowance will be discontinued. As members are aware, the Ombudsman had expressed concern that the schemes were being run contrary to the laws in respect of equality legislation and had presented her concerns to this joint committee. The joint committee then brought before it the Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, the Secretary General of the Department of Health and senior departmental officials to press the concerns of the Ombudsman and to seek some assurances from the Government as to its intentions. The joint committee has had a chance to discuss this issue today and I must state it came as a surprise to members that the courtesy was not extended of making them aware the decision had been made to discontinue the scheme, given they had raised their concerns in this regard only a few weeks ago.

We have been charged by the Oireachtas with responsibility to follow up on the Ombudsman's concerns and to try to establish the actions taken by Departments and Ministers to address the specific concerns raised by her. We were in the process of putting together a report with some recommendations that would be due to be finalised in the next couple of weeks. We will convey our disappointment at not being notified of these events.

We have agreed to invite the Secretary General of the Department of Health to come before the committee to discuss the current contentious issue that has arisen in the past 24 hours. We hope the Secretary General will attend the next meeting, which the committee will convene on Wednesday, 6 March. We could deal with these issues and other matters of dispute between the Department and the Ombudsman. We need further clarification from the Secretary General on these matters in order to make concrete recommendations and to assure the public that lessons will be learned. That is our function. This is the way we propose to deal with the developments of the past 24 hours.

Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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We have discussed the four months grace period for the termination of the two schemes which allows for the continuation of payments for a four-month period to people who are in receipt of payments under the schemes. The processing of applications that had been submitted to date will also continue. That is a recognition of what is practically and pragmatically feasible within the confined of being in compliance with the law, as the Ombudsman had directed. I think it is fair to say that. I hope the Chairman will agree on that.

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
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I hope the Secretary General will come before the committee shortly. Essentially the responsibility for these matters lies with the Department of Health. The Government has been in place two years whereas the Ombudsman had raised her concerns about matters over a decade. That is the reason we have invited the Secretary General of the Department of Health to come before us. I hope he will be able to attend on Wednesday, 6 March 2013.

As we have dealt with all the issues, I propose we adjourn.