Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

One could pick any of the other functions set out in the Bill and say "that is implicit". For whom is the message designed? Is it really designed for the board of the new agency? Is it designed for those who will be working at the helm or the coalface in terms of the agency's 4,000 employees on its establishment? It is definitely also designed for public reassurance. There can be no question this is not just a brief or terms of reference for the new agency. It is a public statement of the agency's role and functions in order to give a public assurance. I believe it is necessary to state clearly there will be no countenance of the practices of the past in respect of inequalities and discrimination, as they have applied across not just the areas I referred to in my opening contribution on this amendment but to all circumstances. We want to see the highest standards of performance and the elimination of practices that discriminate against children on the basis of inequality. Those are practices that must be banished and left to the past. This is a new beginning and we need clearly to state it publicly as well as for the agency and its board. That is why it should be there. I am pressing the amendment.

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