Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

There was some discussion last week about motions coming back without debate from the Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality. Those of us who were at the justice committee meeting last week participated in a very full debate. I personally questioned the Minister about the nature of some of the proposals in the motions and we were satisfied that there was nothing in them of sufficient concern to delay the approval of exercise by the State. The motions received a full debate and the transcript of the debate is on the Oireachtas website. If anybody else wants a full debate they may ask for it but it may be useful for colleagues to know we had a full debate on those motions before the justice committee last week.

I ask the Leader for a debate on overseas aid in light of the dreadful catastrophe in the Philippines. More than 10,000 people are presumed dead as a result of the typhoon which has wreaked terrible devastation for the people there. There is a significant Filipino community in Ireland who are very distressed by what has happened. I very much welcome the €1 million contribution Ireland has already made. I ask that we invite the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Costello, perhaps in a number of months, to talk to us generally about our overseas aid budget and Ireland's response to this sort of international catastrophe.

I ask the Leader to set a date for the debate on the youth guarantee which the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Burton, promised us last week in the context of the Social Welfare and Pensions Bill. There have been some worrying reports of concerns that sufficient funding is not in place to ensure there will be adequate places for all the people under the age of 26 to be guaranteed a placement in training or education or an internship if they have no employment opportunity. We had a very good debate in this House during the Social Welfare and Pensions Bill debates, particularly about the implementation of the youth guarantee and the Minister, Deputy Burton gave us a personal assurance that she would come here before the end of this session to debate with us the detailed plan for the implementation of the EU youth guarantee.

I ask the Leader if we could set a date for that. I believe early December would be best as she has promised the plan would be with the EU by the end of December, as I understand it, and it would be very useful if we could have a debate before it is submitted.