Sharon Keogan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the house. I hope he will take into consideration the amendment tabled by the Independent Senators. None of us are here purely because we walked in the door. We had to get elected to get in here. We all started off as community activists in one form or another. Part of this involved getting engaged in our communities, going to public meetings and seeing what was happening. In my community that was how I got involved. I realised the bishop wanted to rezone a community space in our town for housing. There were not too many engaged at the time but I knew it was a very important piece of land. It was zoned for community and I wanted it to remain so. I took off to find out what was happening at a public meeting. Now the Minister of State wants to take away this opportunity for ordinary citizens to have access to public meetings. This is quite astonishing.

I remember receiving documents in 2014, when I was first elected, about putting people first. The mantra of the Government of the day was about putting people first. This legislation is certainly not doing that. This is very much a top-down approach where the citizen is not put first. As Senator Higgins has just pointed out, 50% of our nation do not have digital skills. Another 500,000 people cannot read or write. This Bill is very disempowering. I really hope the Minister of State accepts the amendment.