Robbie Gallagher (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I too welcome the Minister back to the House to discuss this important legislation. I very much welcome the proposals contained within this Bill. I would like to take this opportunity to give credit here to my colleague, Senator Chambers, who along with Eve McDowell and Una Ring, campaigned very hard for this. As Senator Chambers mentioned, it sometimes felt as if the door was not just closed but firmly locked, but she persisted. I am delighted that her fingerprints are all over this legislation, which on a broader level goes mostly to protect women and that is to be welcomed.

I also welcome the fact that, as outlined to me here by way of a Commencement matter last week, the Minister's intention to go a good way towards increasing the sentences for those who assault our emergency workers. As the Minister mentioned in his contribution, it is not good enough for us to make statements about what should or should not happen; action is needed in this particular area. I thank the Minister for acting on that legislation that I introduced as far back as 2019. If Senator Chambers felt that the door was closed or perhaps even locked, I even had difficulty finding the door to officials in the Department, so to speak. However, I will give credit where credit is due. I do not want to embarrass the Minister with all the plaudits he is getting here this afternoon. I can assure him that it is a one-off. Normal service will resume very shortly. However, on a more serious note, I have reached out to the Minister and his officials and in fairness, I have found that the door was open wide for me. I welcome that engagement.

Our emergency workers go out to serve us all. As the Minister mentioned, in many cases not all of them who put their uniforms on in the morning get the opportunity to take those uniforms off in the evening. That is something we should all remember. It is vitally important that we as legislators, do all we can to protect those who go out every day to protect us. I welcome that the Minister has introduced this strengthening of legislation to protect our emergency workers against assault.

There is now also a specific offence of ramming an emergency vehicle in the course of its work. I suggested this a number of years ago. I commend the Minister and I thank him for listening to us and his actions in this area. His short stint in the Department of Justice will be remembered as a very active one and the Minister can be very proud of the fact that he has introduced legislation that will make very important changes to people's lives and I commend him on that.