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

I thank the Senator for putting forward the amendment. I want to take a step back. The amendment proposes the deletion an existing part of section 50 and its replacement with new text proposed by Sinn Féin Senators. When the Bill was first brought before the Dáil, it referred solely to the institutions listed in the Schedule and they were the only available institutions. Subsequently, following pre-legislative scrutiny and engagement, we added section 50 to the Bill which includes giving power to the Minister to add additional institutions. The Sinn Féin Senators are not proposing new text; rather it is an amendment to the existing text.

Section 51 states:

The Minister, with the consent of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, may, by regulation, provide for the insertion in Schedule 1 of any institution which was established for the purpose of providing maternity and infant care services and the placement of children for the purposes of adoption or care arrangements, and in respect of which a public body had a regulatory or inspection function.

That is in the Bill right now. The change proposed by Sinn Féin colleagues is that, rather than the Minister making the decision as to the addition of new institutions it would be the chief deciding officer. With respect, that would be inappropriate. The chief deciding officer is a civil servant who is independent in terms of the performing of a function regarding whether someone qualifies for a payment under the scheme. The decision as to whether a new institution is added to the Schedule is a policy decision and one which would have to be backed by legislation and regulation. I do not think it would be appropriate for the chief deciding officer to make that decision. It is appropriate that it is a decision made by a Minister.

To be very clear, the power the section talks about already exists. It is just a question of who exercises that power. I believe it is correctly exercised by the Minister and not the chief deciding officer who, as I said, is a civil servant and should not be making a policy decision like that. If we were delegating that decision to a civil servant in other areas, people would not agree with that.