Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am afraid I am not familiar with the issue Deputy McGrath has raised. Perhaps the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, will be able to come back to him directly on it. There have been calls for statements on climate action, on the situation in Northern Ireland regarding the Assembly Executive not functioning and on violence against women and domestic and gender-based violence, in particular. I would welcome statements or debate on them but I really think it is for the Business Committee to order that business in the normal way rather than here on the floor of the House.

I would like to point out that while we do not meet on Saturday, paid domestic violence leave comes into effect from Monday of next week. That is a significant move forward in terms of helping people to escape from domestic and gender-based violence. I am glad that we were able to get this legislation through during this Oireachtas.

On the gender equality issue, two referendums will be proposed to Cabinet next Tuesday. We should be in a position to share with the Dáil immediately after that.

We will have the wording next Tuesday and in order to have the referendum in early March, which is the current timeframe we are working towards, it will be necessary to have the Bill in the House either before Christmas or, if not, first thing in January when the Dáil returns.

Finally, on the Northern Ireland Troubles legacy Act, the Government is still considering the Attorney General, AG's, advice on that. We will have to make a decision in the next few weeks as to whether we will support one of the existing cases or take our own interstate case. We have the AG's advice and that is currently under consideration. We will make a decision in the next few weeks, and at that point it might be appropriate to have statements.

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