Results 11,001-11,020 of 11,744 for speaker:Roderic O'Gorman

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Sustainable Development Goals and Departmental Priorities: Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (3 Nov 2020)

Roderic O'Gorman: I apologise for the breakdown there. With regard to Bessborough House, perhaps it is best that we wait for the report to come out. It will have a detailed chapter on Bessborough. It would be best to look at it then and we will be in a position to address queries about the next steps. The Senator has raised an important issue about adoption. The reason information and tracing legislation...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Sustainable Development Goals and Departmental Priorities: Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (3 Nov 2020)

Roderic O'Gorman: I cannot see if the Chairman is still wearing her fostering badge but I know she was wearing it earlier. Fostering awareness week is coming up and my Department is doing one or two discrete campaigns. As well as the wider fostering campaign, we are also looking to target fostering parents within the Travelling community. We are also looking at a programme to encourage foster parents for...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Sustainable Development Goals and Departmental Priorities: Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (3 Nov 2020)

Roderic O'Gorman: I acknowledge what Deputy Crowe is saying on the burials in Tuam and what was done there, and the importance of the State taking action now to give some dignity to those children and babies in death. It is a dignity we will probably see was not afforded to them in life or immediately on their passing. As regards the timeline for information and tracing, I hope this legislation will be...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Sustainable Development Goals and Departmental Priorities: Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (3 Nov 2020)

Roderic O'Gorman: We are having camera issues. Can the Chairman hear me?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Sustainable Development Goals and Departmental Priorities: Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (3 Nov 2020)

Roderic O'Gorman: I heard everything Deputy Flaherty said. I agree with everything he said and thank him for his comments. We can give a full assurance that there will be absolute disclosure of everything in this report. It is incredibly detailed. It contains 4,000 pages. It includes chapters on each of the mother and baby homes and a social history chapter that tries to give the context of Ireland in the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Sustainable Development Goals and Departmental Priorities: Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (3 Nov 2020)

Roderic O'Gorman: I can still hear the Senator and the Chair.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Sustainable Development Goals and Departmental Priorities: Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (3 Nov 2020)

Roderic O'Gorman: I thank the Senator for her comments. On the issue of residential care and the preference for fostering, I absolutely agree. Fostering is always the preference. Of all children in care in the State, 91% are in foster care and 7% are in residential care. That shows the extent to which Tusla focuses on residential care but there are situations where a child or, often, a young person has...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Sustainable Development Goals and Departmental Priorities: Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (3 Nov 2020)

Roderic O'Gorman: That is why we have had to put in additional supports. We could not do otherwise. If there is a situation involving a young person whose needs far outstrip the capacity of a foster family, we have to put in place that level of care. The Senator referred to direct provision. This cannot, and will not, be simply a name change. It is a complete approach to how we treat people in the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Sustainable Development Goals and Departmental Priorities: Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (3 Nov 2020)

Roderic O'Gorman: If the Senator wrote to me on that point, it would be useful.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Sustainable Development Goals and Departmental Priorities: Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (3 Nov 2020)

Roderic O'Gorman: If the Senator writes to me as well I will engage with the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris, who I understand leads out on apprenticeships. I would be happy to engage with the Oireachtas on that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Sustainable Development Goals and Departmental Priorities: Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (3 Nov 2020)

Roderic O'Gorman: I am aware of the petition. The treatment of the archive of the commission of investigation comes from the original 2004 Act. The mother and baby homes commission was established in 2015 on the basis of the 2004 Act and the requirements of that Act with regard to the archive. My legislation, which is now an Act, was designed to take part of the archive and give it to Tusla.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Sustainable Development Goals and Departmental Priorities: Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (3 Nov 2020)

Roderic O'Gorman: Is that any better?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Sustainable Development Goals and Departmental Priorities: Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (3 Nov 2020)

Roderic O'Gorman: We are being stymied everywhere we go. The treatment of the archive is a result of the 2004 Act and the decision to establish the commission on the basis of its provision. The decision of the Attorney General that the GDPR applies to the archive in my Department is significant. It means that rather than a blanket "No" to access requests, we have to consider each on its individual merits....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Sustainable Development Goals and Departmental Priorities: Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (3 Nov 2020)

Roderic O'Gorman: We will absolutely engage with the Chair. I did not get all the specific questions that she asked, so she might put them in a letter or ask the clerk to the committee to put them together and we will get back to her. As I said in the Dáil and Seanad, I want to work with this committee. Many of the items of legislation we will address, which are very technical and require...

Seanad: Commission of Investigation (Mother and Baby Homes and certain related Matters) Records, and another Matter, Bill 2020: [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] Report and Final Stages (23 Oct 2020)

Roderic O'Gorman: My intention when I brought this Bill forward was that it would be a specific item of legislation to resolve the issues of the database that was created by the commission of investigation into mother and baby homes. I had hoped that this would be a discrete piece of legislation addressing a discrete and distinct legal issue. In my approach, what I lost sight of was that the issues around...

Seanad: Commission of Investigation (Mother and Baby Homes and certain related Matters) Records, and another Matter, Bill 2020: [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] Report and Final Stages (23 Oct 2020)

Roderic O'Gorman: There were a very significant number of contributions, so I will try to address the key points made by the various Senators. If I slip into repetition at all, I apologise. Senator Black read a very powerful letter from Councillor Timmons about his fear that what happened is being swept under the carpet. I absolutely acknowledge that, but that is the absolute last thing I want to see happen...

Seanad: Commission of Investigation (Mother and Baby Homes and certain related Matters) Records, and another Matter, Bill 2020: [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] Report and Final Stages (23 Oct 2020)

Roderic O'Gorman: I take that on board, but it is worth stating that the amendment came in following the introduction of GDPR. That is important. Section 39 was amended in 2018 to deal specifically with the introduction of GDPR.In light of that, the Attorney General has stated that I am bound by that as data controller and by the revised section 39 on responding to data access requests. I do not see that it...

Seanad: Commission of Investigation (Mother and Baby Homes and certain related Matters) Records, and another Matter, Bill 2020: [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] Report and Final Stages (23 Oct 2020)

Roderic O'Gorman: Dáil amendments Nos. 2 and 10 enable the commission to remain in existence beyond the submission of its final report. This is for the purpose of engaging with people who attended before the confidential committee in order to allow them to state their preference for anonymity where that is their wish. As such, the amendments are effectively consequential on amendment No. 9, which...

Seanad: Commission of Investigation (Mother and Baby Homes and certain related Matters) Records, and another Matter, Bill 2020: [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] Report and Final Stages (23 Oct 2020)

Roderic O'Gorman: In response to Senator Boylan, I have not seen that report or what it has commented on, so I am not in a position to comment on it. I have been here with the Senators for the past period of time. Senator Bacik made the point that we are putting a delay in this Bill and the consequence and asked why not delay originally. Since coming to the Department my sense was that, for legitimate...

Seanad: Commission of Investigation (Mother and Baby Homes and certain related Matters) Records, and another Matter, Bill 2020: [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] Report and Final Stages (23 Oct 2020)

Roderic O'Gorman: Not under the amendment I have tabled. I hope that is something we can address in the wider scope of things, but I am not able to provide for that today. However, I recognise that it is an issue.