Paul Bradford (Fine Gael)

The turnout in the Iraqi elections and the change in US policy, with the President accepting the approach advocated by Congress, are welcome.

I support Senator Leyden's comments on the redress board. I raised this a number of weeks ago when Senator Dardis took the Order of Business. I pointed out that in correspondence I received from the Minister for Education and Science, it was stated that the difficulty stems from the fact the redress legislation does not provide for assistance for those people who were taken to Magdalene laundries and such places when they were over 16. If we must accept that yesterday's redress board deliberations have now shut down access for all new applicants, we must ask the Minister to put legislation in place to establish a board to assist the hundreds of people who are not included in the current scheme. The majority of these people were in Magdalene laundries and they are not provided for under the redress board legislation. In this Christmas season we should reach out to these people; if the redress board is now closed to new applicants we should consider a new scheme.