Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I believe we are on amendment No. 30, a Leas-Chathaoirligh. Amendment No. 30 asks that the Minister, within eight months of the passing of this Act, would 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. Others have spoken very eloquently on this issue of family death. Again, it is asking that the Minister would publish legislation. That could take the form of full new legislation or could indeed take the form of statutory instruments, if that is what the Minister would choose to use. It is important that he sends a signal of the next step and that he sets a clock moving on the next steps forward.

This is a special amendment in another way in that it is possibly the Minister's last opportunity to accept an amendment to this Bill in the Seanad. I hope he will consider accepting amendment No. 30, even if the timeline of eight months is perhaps something he may find too restrictive, because he would have the prerogative of extending that period through his own amendment in the Dáil. Either way, I ask the Minister to accept the amendment No. 30 or to indicate and commit to us that he will put in place a timeline for the next steps to ensure that we move towards a national archive developed in consultation with the persons most directly affected and that we put in place a timeline towards proper legislative steps for information and tracing. It is appropriate in a Bill such as this - I accept that it only deals with certain things - to put an arrow towards the next legislation. That has often been done in legislation and it ensures that in what the Minister has asked us to do, which is to accept his bona fides and regard this as one piece in a puzzle, he has indicated to us what the next pieces will be and when they will happen.