Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy and the committee for doing what was a very thoughtful and useful piece of work. The Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O'Gorman, and I have gone through the committee recommendations in detail. We have paused the AHR Bill. We need that Bill and it is very important, but I would like to include whatever is agreed on Committee Stage in it. The Bill will require significant amendments on Committee Stage. That is what we want to do. However, as the Deputy will appreciate, there is substantial complexity involved in the recommendations made in the report. Before the summer, we tasked the three line Departments to come back to the Government with legislative proposals in respect of the various recommendations. We are awaiting that report. I would like to see those proposals come back in a way that means we can proceed through Committee Stage this year. I am very keen that the AHR Bill is passed in this Dáil term. We can wait until close to the end of the term, but we need it for other AHR reasons. It is an ongoing process. That is the intent.

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