Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful to the Minister of State for her reply and for her support and that of the Government for the Bill. She summarised admirably the importance of play. I never realised during my days in the schoolyard how much I was learning about social interactions, dealing with my fears and all those issues. It is all absolutely true. The reference the Minister of State made at the end of her response to "overbearing caution" and the need to avoid it is right on point.

I am very grateful to all colleagues who spoke in this debate. I thank Senator McDowell for seconding the Bill. He stressed the significance of the iceberg principle and reiterated some of the concerns I laid out from the perspective of his long and high level of experience in the courts. I am also grateful to Senators O'Loughlin and Ahearn and to my friend and colleague in the Seanad Independent Group, Senator Clonan, for their support for the Bill.

I apologise for going through my opening speech at pace. I was conscious I had somebody very knowledgeable coming after me to second it and I wanted to cover all the ground. These closing speeches are the YouTube moments in which we can say what we want in a more relaxed way. I am conscious we will be getting out to the schoolyard earlier than I had expected this evening. I might get to address my own risk of obesity, if not childhood obesity, as a result of the relative shortness of the debate. That shortness reflects the consensus in the House in favour of this legislative move.

As I said, the courts have been sensible and are mostly not amenable to unjustified litigation to the disadvantage of schools. Yet, there is still a problem. The iceberg effect leads to cases being settled to avoid hassle and perhaps to avoid the inability to recover costs. All of this means there may be cases we do not know about that are being settled, which is to the disadvantage of the playground experience in schools because it leads to the overbearing caution the Minister of State described.As I said, this has been stressed at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. It would be good if that survey that was mentioned and recommended at the committee were to be carried out to assess the extent to which there may continue to be a problem here, notwithstanding that it is proposed to accept this legislation going forward. That kind of information would be useful and important. It is not just about the legislative change that we make to give comfort and reassurance to schools. It is also about creating a culture that is in favour of and that reassures people that the playground experience is important and that reasonable risks can be run, stressing again that what this legislation does is provide a defence for a school where there is an adequate system of supervision in place, as the Minister of State said, where the statutory and departmental requirements are being met, and that it protects the so-called Good Samaritan, namely, the teacher who intervenes to help a child who is injured or ill, perhaps bringing him or her to hospital or some other place until he or she can get the treatment he or she needs or, indeed, administering first aid. It is unconscionable that a school would be liable for something that might happen in that context except, of course, as my Bill lays out, where there is evidence of bad faith or gross negligence. Of course, liability would arise in that situation. There is no need for me to labour the point any further.

I am grateful for the support for this Bill. I might talk to the Government to see whether it would be possible to get some more time to hasten the passage of this Bill through the Seanad, taking on board, which I am delighted to do, the insights and expertise of the Attorney General, his office and others to make sure this Bill does exactly what is required. I thank the Minister of State and my colleagues.