Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)

Senator Alex White touched on my first point that human rights are at the core of the Good Friday Agreement. Accepting the Minister of State's bona fides, why does the Minister of State have four organisations, Amnesty International, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, ICCL, Front Line and Free Legal Advice Centres, FLAC, here at the front line promoting this? Why are we all on this side wrong while the Government side says only that it must do this? There is no legitimate reason.

The Minister of State must consider what Senators Bacik and Norris said about England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. In England and Wales the lines read, "A purpose falls within this subsection if it falls within ... the advancement of human rights, conflict resolution or reconciliation or the promotion of religious or racial harmony or equality and diversity". In Scotland the description of a charitable purpose includes, "the advancement of human rights, conflict resolution or reconciliation". In Northern Ireland the description includes, "the advancement of human rights, conflict resolution or reconciliation or the promotion of religious or racial harmony or equality and diversity". I return to my earlier point on section 3(10)(e), "the advancement of conflict resolution or reconciliation". I cannot comprehend why we cannot include human rights.

Ireland has former President Mary Robinson as a beacon of human rights across the world. The Minister of State's party colleague and former Minister, the late Niall Andrews, did so much good work, as did people on this side of the House. What are we saying? What are we hiding from? This year we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the declaration of human rights and in our country, with one stroke of a pen, we say we will not include it in this legislation. If we are serious about this, I ask the Minister of State to accept the spirit of the amendments and include human rights on the next Stage of the legislation rather than dividing the House, which we do not want to do.

The omission of the promotion and protection of human rights will have major consequences for the organisations whose sole operational focus and function is to promote human rights, not just here but abroad. Are we saying the advancement of human rights is not of benefit to the community? In a new, modern Ireland, surely the advancement and promotion of human rights of all our citizens has never been more needed. The other night we saw the "Prime Time Investigates" report on the treatment of our new communities. Senator Norris raised issues in the House today about women and men. That is why I am surprised we are not including the reference to human rights because there is no real reason not to do so. The Minister of State gave no reason. On the previous occasion he was in the House, he did not convince any of us, nor has he today. Given that England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all include such a reference in their legislation, why can we not do so? What are we afraid of engaging in and bringing upon ourselves?