Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)

I thank the Minister of State for his response. There is a difference between accepting the recommendations and putting in place the procedures to allow us to move forward. The issue of human rights cannot be held back by resources or finance. It is very important this Government is focused on human rights and on its obligations.

In some of the responses, it is a case of wait and see whether we are actually committed. One of the recommendations put to us was to strengthen the legal framework for the protection of the rights of children and other vulnerable groups, such as women, the elderly, people with disabilities and the Traveller community. In our response, we said we were strengthening the framework we had in place by amalgamating the Equality Authority and the Human Rights Commission. To say that is very premature because we have not seen the Bill on the amalgamation of both of those organisations. We do not know what is contained in it, so we cannot say for certain whether we will strengthen the framework or weaken it. That is important.

There is a wait and see approach in regard to some of them but I commend the Government on the issues which it has accepted. We must place a greater focus on and do a lot more work on this. I do not believe anyone in this House would oppose putting in the proper resources to enable us to meet our obligations.

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