Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I join others in expressing my support for amendment No. 1. There is not a huge amount that I can add to what has been said regarding its impact and necessity. The Civil Engagement Group has co-signed that amendment. I wish to speak on Government amendments Nos. 42 and 43, which are in this grouping, tease them out and get some clarification on them. Those two amendments are a partial acceptance of our proposals on Committee Stage where we called for the review to include analysis of who applied for the scheme and was deemed ineligible as a result of the 180-day and 90-day residency requirements. However, amendment No. 42 does not specifically reference this. It references those who are "entitled to or eligible for" in the new section that would be added on page 34. The amendment reads thus: "(b) in relation to each payment and service referred to in section 18, the proportion of applicants who— ". It then lists the particular areas that will be considered. Will that include data not only on those who were ineligible within the terms of the scheme? Will data on the 180-day period be captured? Will it cover not just people who appear to be eligible within the current framework, but also those who do not currently fit within the framework?Even though it does not name that and is not specific, it should achieve a similar aim and such a breakdown should be included in the review. We hope that will eventually lead to a widening of the scheme in future, following the review if we were to see who was ineligible at that stage. Any review that properly examines the scheme would clearly find in favour of including all survivors, who spent any amount of time in the institutions. Amendment No. 43 also includes an examination of the training of those in the offices of the chief deciding officer within the review, which we also raised as a concern. Although these changes are minor, we hope they open up something wider, especially as it relates to amendment No. 42. Will the Minister speak to the intention of amendment No. 42 and how that data could be used to review the current framework and its obvious gaps as it relates to some survivors?