Results 9,981-10,000 of 11,997 for speaker:Roderic O'Gorman

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Pre-legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Certain Institutional Burials (Authorised Interventions) Bill (Resumed) (18 May 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: I thank the Deputy and I absolutely understand. To clarify, determination on manifest inappropriateness will be made by the Government and not by the agency. Once the agency is established it will do the work so there will be no discretion on the part of the agency. It is a huge thing to exhume a body. In Ireland we have a culture of a resting place being a resting place and it is very...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Pre-legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Certain Institutional Burials (Authorised Interventions) Bill (Resumed) (18 May 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: I might speak generally to the issue of records first and then deal specifically with the role of this agency. Access to information is absolutely crucial to survivors and indeed to a wider group of people including adoptees. Last week we brought forward the draft heads of the birth information and tracing legislation which provides the best guarantee of access to all information and I look...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Pre-legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Certain Institutional Burials (Authorised Interventions) Bill (Resumed) (18 May 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: In terms of its accountability, the agency will have a director and as I indicated earlier, that director will be accountable to the Oireachtas committees. There will be an obligation to provide an annual report on the activities of the agency as well as its interactions with other State agencies. I am conscious that what this agency will be doing is incredibly sensitive in terms of the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Pre-legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Certain Institutional Burials (Authorised Interventions) Bill (Resumed) (18 May 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: The reasoning behind this legislation is, ultimately, an understanding that was felt across the entire country and a repugnance that was felt across the entire country when it became clear in 2014 and 2015, following the work of Catherine Corless and others, that the remains of infants and children were treated in such an appalling manner. Not only were they denied, everything about the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Pre-legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Certain Institutional Burials (Authorised Interventions) Bill (Resumed) (18 May 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: In the context of the interventions we undertake in Tuam, or in any other sites where a decision is made to intervene, I hope we are in the position to provide information and potentially provide families with the remains of infants and children who died in these institutions, bearing in mind the concerns flagged by Deputies earlier about the potential success or otherwise of DNA and other...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Pre-legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Certain Institutional Burials (Authorised Interventions) Bill (Resumed) (18 May 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: The comment I made about three agencies being involved at any one time is specifically in terms of their exhumation powers. This is what we seek to address in the disapplication of the coroner's exhumation power and the disapplication of the local authority's exhumation power. With regard to the coroner conducting its wider investigatory powers, there is no clash on that and the role of the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Pre-legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Certain Institutional Burials (Authorised Interventions) Bill (Resumed) (18 May 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: The two bodies are doing two different things. It is not a case of doing the same thing.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Pre-legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Certain Institutional Burials (Authorised Interventions) Bill (Resumed) (18 May 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: The understanding is that the powers of the coroner already apply and the jurisdiction or the coroner already exists. I am not sure what the clear benefit would be to repeat those powers within the context of the agency and in the particular circumstances. As I said earlier, if there are concerns around the information the agency discovers in the context of its work, which would not be...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Pre-legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Certain Institutional Burials (Authorised Interventions) Bill (Resumed) (18 May 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: Regarding the role and the position of coronial services around the country, that is a matter for my colleague, the Minister for Justice, Deputy Humphreys, because coronial jurisdiction falls within that Department. My understanding is that a wider review is being undertaken in that regard, and I am happy to provide input into that review. It is also important to state that there is an...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Pre-legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Certain Institutional Burials (Authorised Interventions) Bill (Resumed) (18 May 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: I am happy to engage with the Minister for Justice to ensure that resourcing does not become an issue. Indeed, what we are seeking to do with the creation of this agency is to have resource-intensive elements of this process addressed through this agency. A relevant example would be the significant resources which will be required for an exhumation on the scale and complexity, initially, of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Pre-legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Certain Institutional Burials (Authorised Interventions) Bill (Resumed) (18 May 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: Can I just-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Pre-legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Certain Institutional Burials (Authorised Interventions) Bill (Resumed) (18 May 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: That is fine, and I am sorry.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Pre-legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Certain Institutional Burials (Authorised Interventions) Bill (Resumed) (18 May 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: I thank Deputy Murnane O'Connor. We did cover a couple of those points earlier, so I will address some of the points that did not arise previously. The Deputy asked about FSI and its powers. We have set a power for FSI to engage in contracts where it may not have the required facilities. FSI has significant expertise and capabilities, and I acknowledge that at the outset. However, where...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Pre-legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Certain Institutional Burials (Authorised Interventions) Bill (Resumed) (18 May 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: I thank the Chairman and look forward to talking to members of the committee about the information and tracing legislation soon.

Seanad: Young People: Motion (17 May 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: I am pleased to be here in the Seanad to speak to this important motion. I thank Senator Seery Kearney for bringing it forward and I thank all the Senators for their contributions. A wide range of issues has been raised, some of which fall directly within my Department's remit while others are within the remit of my Cabinet colleagues. I will try to address as many as I can in the time...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Maternity Leave (13 May 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: The Maternity Protection Acts 1994-2004 provide for up to 26 weeks maternity leave with a maternity benefit available to those who qualify, and a further 16 weeks unpaid leave. Where a child is born prematurely, additional weeks may be available. I believe the Deputy is referring to a requirement on employers to pay salary during maternity leave. As noted above, maternity benefit is...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Departmental Schemes (13 May 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: As I previously advised the Deputy in my reply to Question No 87 of 29 April 2021, the person in question is no longer an applicant for international protection and is consequently ineligible for the provision of accommodation under the European Communities (Reception Conditions) Regulations 2018. It is open to the person in question to make another application to the Minister for...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Departmental Data (13 May 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: Green Public Procurement in Department of Children, Equality, Diversity, Integration and Youth The Department’s ambition in relation to Green Public Procurement is to reduce its impact on the environment by introducing measures to reduce its carbon footprint in order to achieve the goals set out in the Climate Action Plan. This is strategised in our Corporate Procurement Plan...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Departmental Schemes (13 May 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: I wish to confirm to the Deputy that refugees welcomed to Ireland under the Irish Refugee Protection Programme based in my Department are offered a range of supports to assist in their integration to Irish society. On arrival, programme refugees are generally accommodated in one of three centres where various State agencies provide supports including health, education for children and...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: International Agreements (12 May 2021)

Roderic O'Gorman: My Department made a comprehensive submission to the Attorney General’s Office in 2019 seeking confirmation as to whether Ireland was in a position to ratify the Second Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The advice received from the AGO stated that while Ireland is largely compliant with the terms of the Protocol, there are some outstanding issues that...