Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to add to Senator O’Brien’s comments on the pyrite Bill. There is real merit in the points he makes. We all welcome legislation to address this long overdue issue. It is clearly preferable that we would be given time to consider a Bill at each Stage, even a Bill that is welcomed by both sides, particularly when we have not seen the text of the Bill. We will all take that on board.

Yesterday Senator Hayden called for a debate on direct provision in the new year and I support her call. It is an issue that we have raised many times across the floor of the House, most recently in Private Members’ time. We should return to it because in years to come people will question why we did not do more to stop the appalling conditions that some people in direct provision are living in and to address some of the issues that have arisen in the direct provision hostels and so forth. The Minister has been promising the immigration, residence and protection Bill and we will discuss the direct provision context in that context, but if the Bill is not due to come to the House until later in the first quarter of the new year, we might have a debate specifically on direct provision in advance of that.

May I request a debate on the findings of the Smithwick tribunal, about which there has been much comment since the publication of the report. Clearly the findings are a cause of concern. It will take some time for us to read through it. I have certainly had a look through it, but I would like to have more time to review it and that we would have a debate on it in the new year. I am sure my colleagues will share that view. We will have a meeting of the justice committee today and I think many members will raise it at that meeting also.

As regards the reports of sex abuse against children in institutional care, yesterday the audits from the Catholic dioceses raised very disturbing findings, in particular in relation to the scale of allegations against Christian Brothers. I know we have had debates on the Murphy commission report and the Ryan report, but may I ask the Leader for a debate in a timely fashion in the new year to consider what has been done in the wake of those reports and in order to implement the recommendations of those reports and protect children against such abuse in the future.