Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. I have been asked that the Government take a survivor-led approach to this. The Minister's comments today show that that is what he will do from now on. Generation after generation has been let down by the State imposing its will on people. I thank the Minister for his comments on that.

To speak directly to the amendments, the Minister has shown he has taken on board what the Senators raised with him last week and also what has been raised with me by phone, email, text and letter. I have not been able to respond to all the correspondence I have received but I have done my best to listen to it.

GDPR is raised in some of the amendments. Senator McDowell put it best: GDPR applies whether or not it is referred to in the Bill. We must not forget that. Therefore, for the moment, it is not necessary to refer to it in the Bill on the basis that the Minister has asked the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Children, Disability, Equality and Integration to examine the issue. That is the point about GDPR. Others have made it better than I have made it with their legal background, particularly in the context of the legislation from 2004 and 2015, and I thank them for that.

From the Green Party's point of view, we are newly in government, faced with a difficult situation that was urgent. It is really important to say, however, that there is no mention of sealing of data in the Bill. I think people have been re-traumatised in the past week by misinformation. Whoever's fault that is, it is a fact that has to be acknowledged. Now we all need to be on the same side and the same team, not against one another, and we need to take the word of victims and survivors and use that as our basis for moving forward.