Results 5,281-5,300 of 6,375 for speaker:Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Administration of Magdalen Restorative Justice Scheme: Report of Ombudsman (31 Jan 2018)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: On such schemes generally, it is somewhat difficult to develop fully comprehensive lists of relevant institutions, particularly in respect of events that occurred a significant period of time ago. Would it be preferable, in considering people's eligibility criteria or qualification for a scheme, to base it on harm inflicted rather than a prescribed list of institutions?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Administration of Magdalen Restorative Justice Scheme: Report of Ombudsman (31 Jan 2018)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: As I have to leave at around 12 20 p.m., I may not get to hear the replies to my questions. If the Ombudsman has comments to make, I will follow them up in the Official Report afterwards. Is it the Department's intention to write to all of the people who might be able to claim if the Ombudsman issues recommendations that the scheme be changed?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Administration of Magdalen Restorative Justice Scheme: Report of Ombudsman (31 Jan 2018)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: Would they include people whose duration of stay was in dispute?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Administration of Magdalen Restorative Justice Scheme: Report of Ombudsman (31 Jan 2018)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: I asked about Ombudsman pension payments. Mr. Justice Quirke said Magdalen laundry survivors should be put in the position they would have occupied had they acquired sufficient stamps to qualify for the contributory State pension. Does Mr. Martin believe it should include a backdating of pension payments to retirement age, rather than simply to the beginning of the administration of the scheme?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Administration of Magdalen Restorative Justice Scheme: Report of Ombudsman (31 Jan 2018)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: That is not what Mr. Justice Quirke recommended.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Administration of Magdalen Restorative Justice Scheme: Report of Ombudsman (31 Jan 2018)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: Mr. Martin said his understanding was that there was an acceptance that the State was legally, as well as morally, liable for the wrongs associated with residential institutions. He also said the 2002 Act allowed a person to pursue a claim. Is there an acceptance that the State is liable in the same way for these wrongs?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Administration of Magdalen Restorative Justice Scheme: Report of Ombudsman (31 Jan 2018)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: I am aware of that. I am asking if there is an acceptance that the State is similarly liable.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Administration of Magdalen Restorative Justice Scheme: Report of Ombudsman (31 Jan 2018)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: Therefore, there is no acceptance that the State is legally liable for the Magdalenes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Administration of Magdalen Restorative Justice Scheme: Report of Ombudsman (31 Jan 2018)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: It is my view that the State is morally liable.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Administration of Magdalen Restorative Justice Scheme: Report of Ombudsman (31 Jan 2018)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: Deputy Clare Daly made a good point about Chinese walls and abstract distinctions. The Department may hide behind the Minister on the basis that the Minister ultimately calls the shots, but my concern is that the Minister will do the same, with less justification or rationale. Mr. Martin said the Department did not have the discretion or authority to include An Grianán and similar...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Administration of Magdalen Restorative Justice Scheme: Report of Ombudsman (31 Jan 2018)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: Clearly, with reference to Cork, there was a labour element considered.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Administration of Magdalen Restorative Justice Scheme: Report of Ombudsman (31 Jan 2018)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: In relation to the redress scheme for the industrial schools, was labour a consideration?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Administration of Magdalen Restorative Justice Scheme: Report of Ombudsman (31 Jan 2018)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: Although I could be mistaken, I am certainly not aware of anything following on from the Ryan commission or the residential institutions redress scheme that made labour, including forced labour, a significant consideration. I suggest, although I may be mistaken, that part of the reason the Ombudsman felt there was no requirement to revisit the Magdalen laundry scheme or anything like it was...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Administration of Magdalen Restorative Justice Scheme: Report of Ombudsman (31 Jan 2018)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: Mr. Martin has stated the Government's position was that residents of the industrial institutions would not be eligible because they were not residents of the Magdalen institutions. Given that the avenue of their claims was forced labour, on what basis was it discounted?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Administration of Magdalen Restorative Justice Scheme: Report of Ombudsman (31 Jan 2018)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: When Mr. Martin states it specifically excluded those who had been in the residential institutions and related specifically to those who had been in Magdalen institutions, what does being in a Magdalen institution specifically require? I want to clarify this aspect. Was it strictly required that they had to have been resident in all circumstances?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Administration of Magdalen Restorative Justice Scheme: Report of Ombudsman (31 Jan 2018)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: I am not talking about excluding because of being resident in other places.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Administration of Magdalen Restorative Justice Scheme: Report of Ombudsman (31 Jan 2018)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: Much of this comes back to what seems to be a discrepancy between the recommendation made in the Quirke report and what the Government accepted in September 2013, the report of the interdepartmental group on the implementation of the Quirke report. Mr. Justice Quirke considered the issue of double recovery and discounted it. According to Mr. Martin's statement, the interdepartmental group...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Administration of Magdalen Restorative Justice Scheme: Report of Ombudsman (31 Jan 2018)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: However, in principle, there was nothing in what Mr. Justice Quirke said that was opposed to the concept.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Administration of Magdalen Restorative Justice Scheme: Report of Ombudsman (31 Jan 2018)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: It still seems that there is a discrepancy; there is a difference between it and what was anticipated. Even if it was not addressed by Mr. Justice Quirke, it was clearly a Government decision and at least was interpreted in that way by the Department. On that basis, this is, according to the Department, a question of interpretation. When the case was taken initially, the Department was...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Administration of Magdalen Restorative Justice Scheme: Report of Ombudsman (31 Jan 2018)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: Surely at that stage somebody in the Department would have been responsible for evaluating the case that was to be taken against it and formulating some legal defence. Did it occur to anyone in the Department, whatever about the technical interpretation of the interdepartmental group's report, that morally and in terms of the intent of the Quirke report that it was not in line with what had...