Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I want to explain the reason we will support this Bill. Pre-legislative scrutiny is essential, and I am sure many of my colleagues have spoken about that today. However, this Bill contains, first, necessary measures with expiry dates attached, which is essential when we are talking about Covid-19 and, second, low-hanging fruit measures in terms of the type of legislation needed for our courts. I have spoken to the Department with regard to that and I am satisfied that they are low-hanging and that they are contained in the 2016 law reform report in particular. The measures around hearsay are included.

When we are talking about coroners we have two issues at hand. First, there are a number of inquests coming up, particularly the second Stardust tragedy inquest and, second, we do not know where we are going to go in terms of Covid-19 and we must prepare for that. As it stands, however, we already have a backlog when it comes to coroners and we can only allow one per district. That must change.

The prison system has done an extraordinary job in keeping Covid-19 at bay. If we are to continue that down the line, we must ensure that those who are accused can attend court remotely but also ensure that they will not bring Covid-19 back into the prison system. That is why this Bill is very important on the criminal aspects. In addition, we know that there is a backlog of civil law cases. This Bill will ensure that that backlog is addressed.

When it comes to the miscellaneous section, it is there for a particular period for Covid but if this works we need to look at how we can allow State bodies to ensure that we can have remote voting and remote meetings. I am thinking in particular of councils and women councillors who are unable currently to take maternity leave. When they step out they can no longer participate in the votes that they would and should have been entitled to be part of. I ask the Minister to take that into consideration to see how we can facilitate local government in that regard.