Results 201-220 of 16,285 for speaker:Helen McEntee

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (19 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: It is important to outline that as of the end of April, 399 new classes and one class that has been given a legal direction to open, comprising a total of 400 new special classes, are being opened, coupled with places that have become available due to natural movement, meaning 3,900 new spaces are available. What I expect as Minister and what is happening now is that all of those places are...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (19 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: Who is incompetent?

Seanad: Supports for Survivors of Residential Institutional Abuse Bill 2024: Committee Stage (19 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: Amendment No. 2 is a technical amendment, the purpose of which is to amend section 3 to reflect the recent change of the official title of the Minister from the “Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform” to the “Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation”. Unfortunately, when this...

Seanad: Supports for Survivors of Residential Institutional Abuse Bill 2024: Committee Stage (19 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: I should have started by acknowledging those in the Public Gallery. I thank them for being here. To speak to amendment No. 6, what is being asked here is that there would be professional support provided for victims and survivors.Counselling supports are currently provided through a scheme that was established back in 2000 following the Taoiseach's apology in 1999. It is provided through...

Seanad: Supports for Survivors of Residential Institutional Abuse Bill 2024: Committee Stage (19 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: My intention with this Bill is to pass it so that survivors can benefit from what is in it. I appreciate that there is a difference of opinion on how far it goes. My absolute intention is to make sure they get access, not that people are refused or that anybody has to go to court. That is the last thing anybody wants, nor should it ever happen. I appreciate that sometimes it does but it...

Seanad: Supports for Survivors of Residential Institutional Abuse Bill 2024: Committee Stage (19 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: I thank the Senators for their contributions. What we are dealing with here is very specific to individuals who have been identified as residents and who have been part of the previous schemes culminating from the Ryan report. I appreciate there are various different abuses that have happened in different institutions in different elements of the State. What I have to deal with...

Seanad: Supports for Survivors of Residential Institutional Abuse Bill 2024: Committee Stage (19 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: I hope the Senators would agree that I am not reading off a script and am genuinely responding to the questions as they emerge. I want to be honest and straightforward on all of this. Whether it is the enhanced medical card or the HAA card, if there are challenges around waiting lists and access, I would respectfully say that we still have the same problem. On an earlier point made by...

Seanad: Supports for Survivors of Residential Institutional Abuse Bill 2024: Committee Stage (19 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: I will come back on two things in case they were misconstrued. It is not that one has to be wound down for the other. The supports can only come into play with the legislation. Given that Caranua itself is finished, it and the fund are coming hand in hand. It is not that one has to go with the other. I do not want to mislead in terms of figures, and I want to get absolute clarity on what...

Seanad: Supports for Survivors of Residential Institutional Abuse Bill 2024: Committee Stage (19 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: That was five years later.

Seanad: Supports for Survivors of Residential Institutional Abuse Bill 2024: Committee Stage (19 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: I will respond to a couple of points. It is an average of €15,000. Some might have received less; some might have received more. Some 57,000 payments have been made in total. A lot of them would have been from when the Senator mentioned, in 2017. There were two main elements of the way they were paid out, namely, housing and home improvements, which accounted for €68.7...

Seanad: Supports for Survivors of Residential Institutional Abuse Bill 2024: Committee Stage (19 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: I cannot accept amendment No. 15 simply because I cannot legislate for what another government does in its jurisdiction. However, engagement is already happening between my Department, the Department of children and our sisters departments in Britain and Northern Ireland. As Senators referenced, the vast majority of survivors who have moved away have gone to Britain or Northern Ireland....

Seanad: Supports for Survivors of Residential Institutional Abuse Bill 2024: Committee Stage (19 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: I am always open to amendments. I spent most of my time in my previous role as Minister for Justice either in this House or the other House debating legislation given the type of Department that it was. I am always open to amendments and working with colleagues here. I agree with a lot of the amendments tabled today. Some of them are in the Bill already and that is why they have not been...

Seanad: Supports for Survivors of Residential Institutional Abuse Bill 2024: Committee Stage (19 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: There are a number of amendments, and I will go through them one by one. Amendment No. 16 relates to something we have previously discussed. I restate and stress again that the payment of €3,000 is in line with the previous payments of the other schemes. It is something that does not require an individual apology to show where it is being spent. It is a payment directly to the...

Seanad: Supports for Survivors of Residential Institutional Abuse Bill 2024: Committee Stage (19 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: Yes.

Seanad: Supports for Survivors of Residential Institutional Abuse Bill 2024: Committee Stage (19 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: If it came across in a different way, let me make it clear that redress is not to prevent people from taking legal action and it is not to substitute one for the other. Redress is an acknowledgement of a wrong and, in a small way in many instances, an attempt to try to right that wrong. One can never right that wrong but redress is not there to stop anybody from taking legal action or to...

Seanad: Supports for Survivors of Residential Institutional Abuse Bill 2024: Committee Stage (19 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: Yes.

Seanad: Supports for Survivors of Residential Institutional Abuse Bill 2024: Committee Stage (19 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: This amendment relates to the special advocate. As the special advocate falls under the Minister for children, it is not within my remit so I cannot accept this amendment. This amendment is separate from the amendment related to Sage Advocacy that was mentioned.

Seanad: Supports for Survivors of Residential Institutional Abuse Bill 2024: Committee Stage (19 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: This is a separate amendment.

Seanad: Supports for Survivors of Residential Institutional Abuse Bill 2024: Committee Stage (19 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: The amendment concerns a range of supports that would be provided on the recommendation of Sage Advocacy. As this is not a matter within the remit of Sage Advocacy, I cannot accept the amendment. Amendment No. 22 is the amendment the Senator and I said we would engage on further.

Seanad: Supports for Survivors of Residential Institutional Abuse Bill 2024: Committee Stage (19 Jun 2025)

Helen McEntee: It refers to supports "that will be provided by Sage Advocacy". It is not within its remit to do that.