Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 30:

In page 5, between lines 35 and 36, to insert the following: “8. The Minister, within 8 months of the passing of this Act, shall publish legislation on the right to information in respect of Mother and Baby Homes, including measures to support access to information on birth, early life, health or family death.”.

I want to speak to the wider theme being addressed here. This is one of a suite of amendments that includes amendment No. 29 and amendments Nos. 31 to 34, inclusive.Unfortunately, amendments 29 and 31 to 34, inclusive, were ruled out of order. Given the discussion that we have had today around a route to the right to information and access to birth and early life information and that so much of the Minister’s own address, response and contextualisation of this Bill has been that this is part of a suite of measures, my amendments, for example, Nos. 34 and 33, simply try to suggest that within six months or 12 months of the passing of the Act, the Minister would lay a report before the Houses of the Oireachtas outlining progress on the development of policy and legislative proposals to support information and tracing. Unfortunately, those amendments were ruled out of order. Nothing is, frankly, more relevant to the subject matter of this Bill than the question of whether this is a first step towards proper information and tracing legislation. It is as a first step, as an arrow to the future and to next steps, that I had sought to bring in these amendments. They would be very useful and I urge the Minister, although he may not be able to accept them in this context because they have been ruled out of order, nonetheless to consider including such a specific, hard and firm commitment to the next steps forward within this legislation. It would give many more assurances than simply the words of a Minister or even of the Government saying that they are concerned and plan to move forward. This sets a timeline.

My amendment No. 30 is the only one of my remaining timeline amendments which is considered within the remit of this Bill. I urge the Minister to consider accepting it.