Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Like everyone else, I congratulate the Minister and Minister of State on their recent appointments and wish them luck in the years ahead.

I will start by talking about the national protective services, the district protection units. These are really positive initiatives on the part of An Garda Síochána and they can help to address many of the issues Members have been talking about regarding domestic violence. One important resource that these units need is social workers from Tusla sitting around the same table and working together. There is a major need for co-operation and communication in cases dealt with by the services. While I appreciate that this is more an issue for the Minister responsible for children, Deputy O'Gorman, with whom I have raised it, I feel that instead of just waiting for Tusla to show up, it is sometimes important to invite people to the dance. As I did with the Minister's predecessor, I ask her to be proactive in linking with Deputy O'Gorman and Tusla to ensure social workers provide a joined-up service that will really benefit people.

This is linked to wider issues concerning how we deal with domestic violence, gender-based violence and child protection issues. It relates to the specialised family courts.

I ask the Minister to ensure, despite the challenges to the Courts Service, that the specialised family courts are prioritised and drive ahead. The specialised family courts are really important in improving service and reducing trauma to families who have to go through the family courts and they provide a vehicle for developing the expertise for delivering the training and ensuring judges are aware of all the important matters raised by Deputy Carroll MacNeill. This is to ensure the experience of those using family courts is positive rather than another trauma in a long history of such trauma.

I also mention the Prison Service. It is commendable that the service has achieved a position where there are no Covid-19 infections in the prison population. Like in the rest of society, there was a very quick and strong reaction to prevent infection and we saw a complete suspension of family visits. This was clearly a proportionate measure at the time of the pandemic, but it is positive to see that restrictions are being unwound and family visits will start to begin again. In some areas we have seen an acceleration of the easing of restrictions where public health allows, and I ask that the Minister ensures that if the opportunity exists to accelerate the easing of restrictions on family visits, it would be done.

In society during the Covid-19 pandemic, many things that were impossible suddenly became possible. With the Prison Service, one such action was the facilitating of video link visits for families. This was innovative and an excellent way of supporting prisoners to maintain the relationship with families, particularly young families where a parent is in prison. This is very important for many reasons, including ensuring a connection to family and community to help to prevent recidivism and improve mental health, as mental health problems are so prevalent in prisons now.

As we see an unwinding of restrictions and a return to family visits, it would be really positive if we could keep video visits as an option for visitors. This should not replace in-person visits by families but rather supplement what is there. This would have a very positive impact on the family and community life of prisoners when they leave prison as well as on their mental health while they are in prison. This is a major issue that must be addressed.

The budget for the Data Protection Commission has increased but it is only a third of what was requested by the Data Protection Commission to do the job it needs to do. Our Data Protection Commission is the single most important such commission in Europe. Most of the technological companies are based here and any matters arising from the General Data Protection Regulation, GDPR, will be dealt with by our Data Protection Commission. However, we have a very low number of specialised and technical staff there. Although budgets are increasing, they are still being outstripped by the increase in and complexity of complaints coming to them. The Data Protection Commission still does not have the resources it requires to administer the GDPR effectively, and without proper and effective administration and enforcement of the GDPR, there is a risk that this very important legislation will wither on the vine.

The importance of our Data Protection Commission and the impact of a lack of funding has been called out by privacy campaigners and even by other data protection commissions in Europe. They have identified the Irish Data Protection Commission as a bottleneck and a roadblock on Europe-wide investigations and enforcement. If GDPR is to be meaningful and to facilitate the reforms, controls and protection for European and Irish citizens that it is supposed to, we must ensure we can give proper funding to the Data Protection Commission.

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