Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I accept that. The reason I am making this point today is because I want to appeal to colleagues from the Government benches, in particular, to stop and have a conversation in their parliamentary parties to ensure that the Bill in its current form does not pass and those crucial reforms to include survivors are made.

I cannot understand why there is silence from the Government side of the Chamber on this Bill. Everybody knows it is fundamentally flawed and we will let everyone down if the Bill passes in its current form. There is no reason why, collectively, the Chamber cannot do better. The silence last week from the Government side was outrageous, frankly. This is a crucial Bill for survivors who have been let down many times by the State. The Government is about to let them down again. Surely we can collectively do better. I ask for the Leader to respond. Surely we can agree to pause the Bill before it goes to Report Stage and see if, collectively, we can do far better than the Government is doing right now.