Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am sure that will be a massive relief to Deputy Martin.

I wish to raise three issues. We have been promised the reformed and consolidated domestic violence Bill and we were led to believe it would be prioritised in the course of this Administration's tenure. It now appears the legislation will not have come through the Oireachtas by the time the Dáil is dissolved and we go to the people. This is a matter of immense frustration. I engaged in lengthy correspondence with the previous Minister, Deputy Shatter, on this issue. He rather unhelpfully wrote to inform me he was not considering this legislation because he had better and more important things to do. That was when the troika was in town but we were then told the legislation would be prioritised and it clearly has not been. The Bill is listed in section B and its expected publication date is 2016. It is very poor that the Taoiseach and his Government have failed to bring forward this legislation despite all the crocodile tears. It is a matter of huge disappointment.

The disability and equality (miscellaneous provisions) Bill was to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities and to make further technical amendments to disability and equality legislation. This has been anticipated for quite some time but the Taoiseach and all of us will discover, when we speak to people in the course of the election campaign, the extent to which those with disabilities feel they have suffered very serious and disproportionate cutbacks at the hands of the Government. The Government has now failed to introduce this and other items of legislation to underpin the rights of these people and to ratify international instruments.

Third, and finally, the criminal justice (Stormont House Agreement) implementation Bill refers not to budgetary matters or sustainable budgets but is to give effect to the provisions of the Stormont House Agreement that deal with the legacy of the past. There remains a difficulty in respect of so-called Tory welfare reform, for which one must read "cuts", but both the British Government and the Government in Dublin have been slow and taken their eye off the ball by not bringing forward the legislation relating to the Stormont House Agreement that was expected. The Taoiseach rather ironically suggested that Sinn Féin - which, unlike his party, is elected in the North - not take its eye off the ball but it is, in fact, the Taoiseach who has taken his eye off the ball. Under "Status of Bill" it reads, "Publication Expected - Not possible to indicate at this stage." That is not great, is it? It is not helpful or the sign of a Government or a Taoiseach with their eye on the ball as regards stability and peacemaking in the North.

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