Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I am not in a position to support this amendment. As the Senator will be aware, the purpose of the Bill is to provide for the establishment of the payment scheme, the making of payments, and the provision of health benefits under the scheme. As stated in response to previous amendments, the Bill provides for reports to be made, but these are appropriately related to performance of the functions under the Act and the operation of the scheme.

There are a number of points in the amendment that would be exceptionally challenging or potentially simply not possible to implement from a legal perspective, particularly the creation of statutory obligations in offences for non-compliance. With regard to the criteria for establishing the size of the contributions due by a relevant party, which includes a private individual or an organisation, again it would be very difficult to establish and verify information in respect of each of the points proposed and especially given the timeframe involved, which spans almost 80 years.

I again reassure Senators that I am committed to a process of negotiations with religious congregations around them making a meaningful contribution. As I outlined last week, I secured Government approval to engage a negotiator to undertake and conclude negotiations with religious bodies. While these negotiations are ongoing, I am not in a position to discuss them. Most people will understand that if I were to give an ongoing commentary on them, it would undermine the negotiations. When they are concluded, a full report will be provided to Government on the process and the outcomes of those negotiations.

While hearing the Senator's criticism that these negotiations are not as yet concluded, I have always said I was prioritising the delivery of this scheme. The delivery of the scheme and the financing of the scheme was not, and never was, contingent on the outcome of those negotiations. That is important. The most important thing is to get this scheme up and running so that survivors and former residents can make applications to it.