Ivana Bacik (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his very considered response to comments made by many of us in respect of the first group of amendments. In particular, I thank him for his response to my comment about the need for supports for those who will be affected by the publication of the report and the organisations supporting them, and for his commitment to ensuring that enhanced supports will be made available, which is important and good to hear. I also thank him for his positive comments on the archive and the securing of access.

It has been a constructive debate, as the second group of amendments reflect. As the Minister stated, the Government amendments are consequential to the debate in the House last week, which is very positive. It is unfortunate that one Government Senator chose to adopt a confrontational tone in impugning the motives of people who had expressed opposition to the Bill because, generally, it has been a very good debate in the House.

Having said that, we remain critical of aspects of the legislation. Through Dáil amendments Nos. 2 and 10, the Government seeks to provide that the commission shall not be dissolved until 28 February 2021. That raises the question I asked earlier as to why there was such urgency with the Bill and the need for it to pass all Stages, to be guillotined through the House and to be enacted by 30 October. Although the report will be published on 30 October, we are now providing that the commission itself will not be dissolved until 28 February 2021. Would that not always have been a better approach to take, to give us more time to debate the issues and to enable a clearer explanation of the context for the Bill being put forward? It is unfortunate, although we will not object to the extension of time for the commission to carry out the work that will be provided for now in establishing the agency of those who gave evidence to the confidential committee. I will not oppose that extension of time but the amendment highlights that the time could have been extended before now, which would have meant we would have had appropriate time for proper parliamentary scrutiny of the Bill, rather than having it rushed through the Dáil and the Seanad in the way it has been. That is an obvious point to make when considering amendments Nos. 2 and 10.

On behalf of the Labour Party Senators, I support Senator Higgins's amendment No. 1, which seeks to do what I have just described, namely, to provide for a longer date, specifically to the end of January. I will also support amendments Nos. 11 and 12, put forward by the Sinn Féin Senators, which were also signed up to by the Labour Party Senators on Committee and Report Stages last week. I acknowledge the amendments have been addressed by others and we have spoken to them in respect of the data protection law aspects and of the application of the Data Protection Act.

It is unfortunate that we are rushing the debate and that we may not get to other amendments. Nevertheless, I wanted to put on record my views on the amendments in the second group.