Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

No, we could not get the names of other persons, but we could certainly have information in respect of the records of a vaccine trial. For example, if particular drugs or vaccines were bring trialled or developed. It is one thing to state in a record that a person was vaccinated and another thing to say a person was part of a vaccine trial and to outline the stage of development of the vaccine, what it was part of and who was being paid for it. There is a lot more information relating to a vaccine trial. I will not press the amendment now.

I accept that amendment No. 6 probably is not needed and is covered by what is in the Bill, but in amendment No. 5 there is something slightly different and it is just a case of clarifying the position. Simply saying one received X or Y vaccine would not be an adequate coverage of the fact that one was part of a vaccine trial, for example. I may introduce an elaboration of the amendment on Report Stage. We might even seek to have vaccination covered in the section on early life care and see if it is something that could be clarified. It is a very different thing to be vaccinated and to be part of a vaccine trial. I will not press the amendment, as I agree with the Minister on the placing.

Amendment No. 6 is probably adequately covered by the medical information and the other provisions the Minister has outlined. Regarding amendment No. 7, the problem is that the care arrangements, as currently described in the Bill, almost describe the formal care arrangements to an extent, in terms of the nursed out or boarded out arrangement. It is those institutions that may be part of the Schedule. The Minister will be aware that there are concerns around what is or is not in the Schedule. The purpose of paragraph (d) in the amendment was to capture the wider arrangement that might not be a formal nursing out or boarding out arrangement, a foster care arrangement or an arrangement under the Child Care Act. We know that there were informal arrangements that took place as well, that may not have happened under the particular Act, be it the Child Care Act or in relation to whatever limited organisation or institution or to a formal nursed out or boarded out arrangement. The amendment seeks to capture those informal care arrangements that we have heard of.

I am also conscious that one of the groups I will be talking about later in terms of the Schedule is psychiatric institutions. That is why we have included a reference to "care of children and mothers" in the amendment. We know there are a lot of cases, for example, of mothers being sent postnatally to psychiatric institutions, and in one case I am aware of a person spending the rest of her life there. I am trying to capture the wider spaces and ensure things do not fall through the cracks.