Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I should say that the Oireachtas Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality will continue to deal with the Legal Services Regulation Bill in the new year. I know it will be before us. I imagine it will probably be February or March 2014.

We can certainly have a debate on the idea of a drop in the age of consent. I know the Government has confirmed that the general scheme of the criminal law (sexual offences) Bill will be published in January so we might have a debate on that. The Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality will be looking at the heads of that Bill. Senator Healy Eames also called for a debate on education reform. I am sure we can accede to that in the new year.

Senator Conway spoke about NAMA, complimented Senator Darragh O'Brien and supported Senator Kelly's call for a debate on poverty. Again, I think there are two debates for which Senators Conway and Kelly are looking for. One is on poverty, perhaps with the Minister for Social Protection, and the other is on homelessness, which should be a separate debate with the Minister of State with responsibility for housing and planning. I know the Minister of State has been developing a plan. I think Senator Conway is quite right. We need to challenge the Government on the plan to eliminate homelessness, particularly on its implementation. This is not the first Government that has sought to eliminate homelessness but it is a matter of grave concern to see how many are homeless - those who are visibly homeless but also those who are homeless on waiting lists. We need to have that debate in the new year.

Senator Wilson commended Senator Darragh O'Brien and asked for a new year's resolution to be adopted in this House. As the Senator said, he is pushing an open door. He is right in saying that successive Governments have been guilty of trying to ram through legislation at the end of the summer and Christmas terms in particular, and that it is not good legislating, as I said on the record of this House last night. We should all join in commending the Leader on listening to and taking on board what we all said last night and changing the Order of Business in the course of the debate last night in order that Report Stage of the Water Services (No. 2) Bill did not conclude last night but has been included on today's Order of Business. I remind colleagues that there are changes to the schedule in the Order of Business that I announced this morning. These changes are very positive in terms of giving us more time to debate legislation when it had originally been sought to push through this legislation much more quickly. Other colleagues will be interested to know we had a meeting on Seanad reform with the Taoiseach. These are very useful and positive developments.

Senator D'Arcy spoke about NAMA legislation. He made the point that the Garda Síochána investigates allegations rather than the Minister for Finance. Senator D'Arcy very helpfully suggested that John Major would be a very appropriate person to invite to speak to the House as a distinguished speaker, in particular as it is the twentieth anniversary of the Downing Street Declaration. The Committee on Procedure and Privileges considered the matter of distinguished speakers and agreed to consider a list of potential distinguished speakers at its first meeting in the new year. We will add John Major to that list. That was a very positive and good suggestion from Senator D'Arcy.