Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this Bill as an important piece of progressive penal reform. I compliment the Minister on all the work she has done and echo the comments made by Senators Conway and Wilson.She is an able and reforming Minister and she has always been so courteous and easy to deal with. I thank her for allowing so many Bills to start in the Seanad, which is important. She has steered through many significant justice Bills and this is just one of them. This is very progressive; for the first time in the history of the State, adults with convictions will be able to have those convictions considered spent. I really welcome the fact that this will apply to anybody who has a conviction with a sentence of up to 12 months. We should not forget that the original proposal was much more conservative. I welcome the legislation and thank the Minister for bringing it here. I also thank her officials, who have worked so hard. It has been a pleasure to work with officials in the Department of Justice and Equality over the past five years.

I thank Senators Conway and O'Donovan, my colleagues from the Seanad on the Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality, along with Senator Zappone. We have worked very well together on justice matters and we have had much work to do over the past five years. The justice committee has been described as the Bruce Springsteen of committees, hard-working and under-reported. We have done much work with the Minister, and I thank her for that. I forgot to thank the Whips, Senators Wilson, Hayden and Coghlan, but it has been great to work with them. The Bacik family connection in Cavan was mentioned, and it is nice to be related, even on an honorary basis.