Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I concur absolutely with Senator Ó Murchú's comments on Palestine, the appalling situation there and the lack, it appears, of any move towards a resolution in the interests of the lives of civilians. Any sign that the American Secretary of State, John Kerry, and others are seeking to intervene to try to restore some form of peace or achieve some resolution is very welcome.

I welcome the speech by the US President, Barack Obama, at the Paris summit yesterday, where he pointed out that the Paris conference is a potential turning point for us in respect of curbing global warming. We are at a critical point to try to ensure we do not see it take hold, with the dire consequences we all know will occur. I concur with Senator Ó Murchú's comments on Ireland's role in this. Clearly, it will be difficult for us to seek to meet the 20% reduction by 2020, particularly because of our agricultural emissions, but we have a duty to ensure that we try to meet these targets. The House recently concluded a debate on the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill, which was very welcome, but in the new year I would like us to have a debate on how best to implement the policy in the Bill and how best to ensure we meet our targets in light of whatever decisions are made in Paris. I know all colleagues will want to join in expressing hope for a positive and effective agreement among the international leaders represented in Paris.

I commend the "RTE Investigates" team for its excellent and very powerful documentary, which many colleagues saw last night, on the sex trade in Ireland - in other words, prostitution and sex trafficking. It had some very disturbing findings. We are debating changes to prostitution law under sections 20 and 21 of the Criminal Law (Sex Offences) Bill 2015.In light of that, I have invited the makers of the "RTE Investigates" documentary to come to the AV room in Leinster House tomorrow at 12.30 p.m. to brief us on their findings. I have also asked a couple of independent experts to speak in more general terms about the way in which the law can impact on change in behaviour in terms of prostitution. The links between prostitution and organised crime were made explicit in last night's documentary and confirmed the findings we made in the justice committee report which led to the change in the law. I welcome that and invite colleagues to attend.

Finally, I welcome the Northern Ireland High Court decision yesterday, by Judge Mark Horner, in a case taken by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission. The judge found a breach of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights in respect of the failure to provide for abortion in cases of fatal foetal abnormality and rape. Clearly, there are implications for this jurisdiction, but the Leader has agreed already to a debate on that in the new year.