Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I reluctantly accept that the intention is to have this matter addressed. It is not that I question the Minister of State. I know how much he cares about addressing this issue. At the very least, we should include in the legislation an intention that the commission address it. If we have a reshuffle, we could have an election and the next Minister or Government may not necessarily have the same intention as the Minister of State. They may not have the bona fides that they will ensure this long-standing issue is addressed. At the very least, the Minister should be able to consider how this massively important task for civil liberties, civil freedom, civil society, activism, grassroots campaigns on climate action and residents' associations is affected.If the Minister of State cannot address the definition of "political purposes" within this, I plead with him to consider between now and Report Stage whether we can at least state in the legislation that the commission will be tasked with carrying this out, so it is in the legislation and will not be on the table of a future Minister who may not care about it as much as someone else. As I said, I have been trying to fix this since the term of the previous Government, and we could come out of the term of this Government and into that of the next one. To ensure the future Minister and the Department will see it through, I ask the Minister of State to think about an amendment from him between now and Report Stage to enshrine it in this legislation.