John McGahon (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have the unenviable task of following an incredible contribution from Senator Norris. What a privilege it is to serve in this House alongside someone who has fought for so long for equal rights, since he was first elected to this House in 1987 and in his academic career before that. I would also like to thank my colleagues in Sinn Féin for bringing forward this motion and to acknowledge my Louth colleague, Deputy Nash, who built a lot on this in the last term of the Seanad, bringing forward a Bill to push this. I commend Deputy Nash on that.

As has been mentioned already, this is a Government commitment, it is in the programme for Government, it is something all sides of this House can agree on and it is something that all sides in this House and in the Dáil want to see enacted as quickly as possible. We are past the 50% stage of this Government, we have a substantial programme for Government and we have a number of commitments we want to make but this is an important commitment that we need to get across the line as quickly as possible.

I understand that the Minister without Portfolio, Deputy McEntee, established a working group between people within the Department and members of An Garda Síochána to establish what type of records need to be expunged. Naturally, given the length of time we are looking at, some historical records are not available. That working group met in June 2021 and has met subsequently. I would appreciate it if the Minister of State could give us an update on that working group, what it is doing and what are its timelines. When does the Minister of State expect to be able to inform both Houses of the Oireachtas when the working groups conclusions will come forward so that we can get this commitment in our programme for Government achieved and over the line?

I would also like to apologise for Senator Ward, who is our party's justice spokesperson, who cannot be here so I am happy to fill in for him. As I said, this is a good debate and I thank Senator Warfield and Sinn Féin for moving it forward. It is an important debate and one on which I am proud to contribute.