Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

At no point in his answer did he give an explanation for the justification for excluding people who spent less than six months in the institutions. He has not answered that question. I plead with him to do so. It is not for me but for the people watching proceedings. It is for the survivors, who have written to us in their thousands to tell us there is something fundamentally unjust about this part of the Bill. Simply to read out that it was a decision made by an interdepartmental group is not an answer. The Minister and I both know that is not an answer. I ask him to please tell me he is not just going to sit here in silence and sit this out. That is enormously disrespectful to all of those people who deserve better than that from the Minister. My colleague, Senator Higgins, has been complimentary to the Minister but I must point out that the buck stops with him and nobody else. He cannot later say he was not allowed to do X, Y or Z. He is the Minister. He has the power to make a decision here and yet, to date, he has not given us an explanation as to the justification for excluding these people. That is what everyone here wants to know. I ask him to please tell me he is not just going to sit there in silence.