Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is as always very welcome to the House. I begin by saying Dr. Tony Holohan, our Chief Medical Officer, retains the confidence of this House, the respect of this House and indeed that of the Irish people for the extraordinary manner in which he has led this country through the worst pandemic in living memory. It is extremely important that is reiterated. The work Dr. Holohan has done, coupled with the work of Dr. Ronan Glynn and indeed all of NPHET, the Department, the HSE and frontline workers throughout the country has saved thousands of lives.In terms of what is going on in the UK and in other countries we should be proud of the work of our Chief Medical Officer and his team.

I echo the sentiment of Senator Clifford-Lee and others that we should always remember the reason this legislation is necessary in the first instance. It is a response to the awful scandal of what happened over the past three or four years. Our respect for the people who stood up and called it out is enormous. The introduction of this legislation to extend the timeline by another six months is appropriate, particularly as a pandemic has existed here for the past 18 months and it has affected everyone, including people who wanted to use this vehicle to seek redress. This particular manner of seeking redress is far more preferable than people having to go to court. Anything that we can do to facilitate this extension of the timeline will be done. If a further extension is needed in 2022, we should not be shy in introducing further amending legislation to do that. We have passed many technical Bills in this House down through the years, many of which have been of little importance in that they sought only to tidy up or close off loopholes. While that work has to be done and it is what a good Legislature will do, sometimes legislation is introduced that has unintended consequences and technical amending legislation is required to address those unintended consequences. Rarely has a technical Bill of such importance as this Bill come before this House.

We will do what we can. I agree that the 90 minutes is appropriate because we do not want to delay the passage of this legislation. We do not need a two or three-day debate on this Bill. That is not what the women who have been affected by this scandal want; they want this Bill passed as quickly as possible so that the tribunal can get on with its work and redress can be achieved. It is important that this legislation is passed and it will be passed. I sincerely hope it will be passed unanimously without any objections. It appears that that will happen. As I said, if further amending legislation is required in 2022 Members of this House will not be found wanting.

It is important that I and others articulate the fantastic work that has been done by Dr. Tony Holohan, Dr. Ronan Glynn and others. Everyone makes mistakes, but the mistakes have been few and far between.