Jillian van Turnhout (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I warmly welcome Senator Gerard Craughwell to the House. I have no doubt that my colleagues in the Independent group of Taoiseach's nominees would like to extend a warm welcome to him. We look forward to working with him in a constructive atmosphere that I hope we can embody here in this House for the betterment of the people of Ireland.

I also join in congratulating the Minister for Justice and Equality and her Minister of State, Deputy Ó Ríordáin, for the excellent selection of members for the newly established working group referred to earlier. The cross-range of people selected is unique and it is good to see personal experience, academia, civil society and departmental views represented. It is good to see the working group is headed up by former judge, Mr. Bryan McMahon. Such diversity is essential for an holistic review of the current system and I am optimistic that we will have a positive outcome. I still hope that the report will be ready by the end of December as promised by the Minister of State, Deputy Ó Ríordáin, in this House. We have a very strong Seanad cross-party working group on direct provision and I hope we can deliver on the issue.

My final comment is on the budget today. In my former life I was in the Children's Rights Alliance and I used to tune out of the budget on the morning of it because I often got confused by everything that was said and whether it would turn out to be true or not. I hope that many of the things that have been said will relieve the hardship, stress and distress being experienced by many children, families and young people in Ireland. I also hope we will have time later today, when discussing the Budget Statement, to reflect on what is actually in the budget and how it will pan out. I will look particularly at the impact on children and how their lives will be improved and not just simply having cash transfers and going back to the old way of doing things. We debated in this House, after the last three budgets, the need to invest in services at local level and I hope we see those investments.