The events of the last few days in Northern Ireland have filled us with horror. The attack on that young person two nights ago was absolutely savage and horrific. Our thoughts are with the victim and his family. It is beyond our comprehension that a person could wield such violence on another individual in such a manner. The very graphic representation of that on social media has shocked many people. Like the Deputy, I salute the courage of Maitiu Mág Tighearnán for his very brave intervention to essentially save the life of the victim. The violence of last night has to be roundly condemned. I pay tribute to all of the political leaders who yesterday responded in the first instance to the attack of the previous evening, and for the unified message condemning any attacks on individuals, families and homes. What we witnessed last evening is absolutely appalling - that families would be burned out of their homes because of race or ethnic reasons. I join with all Members of this House in condemning unreservedly the attacks of last evening. They were orchestrated. We have had evidence of this in other countries where situations like this are exploited, which results in the violence of the type we saw last evening. All of us have to be very vigilant and clear in standing up for fundamental, human values in terms of the dignity of every single individual in our society. We uphold and defend the dignity of every single individual irrespective of what transpires or occurs and fully support the rule of law. In this instance, we fully support the PSNI in terms of its investigation of both the crime against that young individual and the violence and criminal activity in evidence last evening across the North but particularly in Belfast. An Garda Síochána will continue to work with the PSNI in terms of the broader issues that relate to this. More fundamentally, we must call on all citizens to support the police, in this instance the PSNI, to get swift justice in respect of the appalling attack two nights ago, but also in terms of those who targeted individuals in their homes and burned out people from their homes. This brings back appalling memories of incidents of this kind from the late 1960s and early 1970s but it has a particular manifestation in today’s world. I watched some of the commentary from some social media outlets, and some media platforms of a particular orientation or political disposition which, to say the very least, was decidedly unhelpful in terms of how they portrayed the events of the past 48 hours. There can never be any implied justification for the attacks of last evening.
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There never can be any attempt at rationalisation of it either. Nobody has the right to take the law into their own hands or to say to someone,“You are not living here any more”.
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Such threats are appalling and must be roundly condemned. Unfortunately, it has become a phenomenon in this era that there are increasing numbers of threats to public representatives across the board. To threaten the Lord Mayor in the context of yesterday and the day before is appalling and has to be condemned. All threats to public representatives have to be condemned. Unfortunately, both the Garda and the PSNI are pursuing too many cases where threats are made to the lives of politicians in this House, in the Northern Assembly or, in this case, to the Lord Mayor. We all join in condemning that. We also have to face down racism. We also have to make sure that our Garda here and the PSNI in the North are adequately resourced and supported without any equivocation-----
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-----in all communities to pursue these people who seem to think they can create an alternative-----
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-----framework to get their way. They must be resisted by all of us.
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The Government does acknowledge and takes very seriously the role of carers in our society. I acknowledge that we have made commitments in the programme for Government, particularly the commitment in terms of the weekly income disregard and that we would eliminate the means test, essentially. Already, as part of the most recent budget, and from this July, the weekly income disregard will increase from €625 to €1,000 for a single person and from €1,250 to €2,000 for carers who are part of a couple. The latest reforms will result in more carers qualifying for carer's allowance. In effect, it means that a carer in a two-adult household with an income of approximately €110,000 will still retain their full carer's payment, and even with an income of €138,000 will retain a partial payment. That is a significant step taken already in respect of the programme for Government commitment to abolish the means test for carer's allowance over the lifetime of the Government, which is the commitment we made. In addition to that, the carer's support grant of €2,000 is paid this month. We will in the forthcoming budget further develop on that commitment and further realise it in terms of the income disregard and the means test. We increased the core weekly social welfare rates by €10. The highest ever increases in child support payments occurred in the last budget. I took a keen interest in that with the Minister, Dara Calleary, because of the unit in my Department dealing with child poverty. We increased the child support payment for children aged 12 or over by €16 to €78 and for children under 12 by €8 to €58. Since 2020, that is, in the past five years, the weekly child support payment has increased by 95% for children aged 12 or over and by 61% for children under 12. I heard the Children's Rights Alliance this morning describe that as a significant move, although recent inflation in fuel prices has negated it to some extent. Nonetheless, it is recognised generally as a more targeted way of dealing with child poverty. We have increased the fuel allowance. We increased the domiciliary care allowance by €20, bringing it to €380 per month now. That has gone up by €70 since 2022. We are progressively increasing key payments that will help carers and children who are being cared for. The Minister is also working on proposals, and there has been a public consultation, in respect of the cost-of-disability payment. A lot of work has been done on that. There was a focus network summit on 13 May last in respect of that specific issue, which was hosted by the Minister for Social Protection.
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As I said, we are going to do it. We did give the commitment that it would happen over the lifetime of the Government. I would not underestimate the step we have already taken because I think that when this lands in July, the increase in the income disregard will actually be quite significant, maybe more significant than people thought. We will make a further significant move in the forthcoming budget and I think we will be well on the way then to eliminating the means test. Of course, there is a wide variety of measures we have to take to improve the situation for carers and people with disabilities more generally. We are looking at a new transport scheme to be introduced by the Department of Transport and the Minister for Transport, which we have been working on in the Cabinet subcommittee on disability. I mentioned already family support payments and the cost-of-disability initiative. There is a wide range of areas, if you bring them all together, that will make a meaningful difference. Of course, there is the investment in core services as well. What can alleviate a lot of pressures on people is providing other supports such as-----
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-----therapies, as we are doing in the school-based therapy service, which will take some pressure off carers.
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First of all, I want to say without equivocation that the crimes committed by Bill Kenneally were absolutely horrific over a prolonged period of time and caused immense trauma and suffering to many people and families. I am reading through the report, like Deputy Bacik. The judge, Michael White, has been very clear in terms of the central finding of a failure and a dereliction of duty in relation to the way An Garda Síochána dealt with this, particularly in 1987 when the perpetrator himself, Bill Kenneally, was in the Garda station and almost acknowledged culpability in respect of this, and the failure to do things properly in terms of taking statements and sending them to the DPP at the time. There are wider issues as to why the Garda was not in a position to do that and so forth, but I am not going to go through that here. That, in my view, and also some failings in terms of the health board at the time, demand a State apology. That is my clear reading of the report so far. There is no equivocation by the commission in terms of that central conclusion in respect of the failure to deal with this properly and comprehensively at the time, even by the standards of the day. The report goes into the contrast, which it describes as profound, in terms of the understanding and the framework and edifice we have in place today for child protection, but even by the standards of the late 1980s the commission says it is absolutely not acceptable. There is then also the behaviour of others, including the former public representative, former TD, Brendan Kenneally, at the time. The commission is very clear that it fell below the standards that one would expect. It seems to me that the recommendation that has been made pertains to the failure of An Garda Síochána in terms of that central failure to prosecute, and to do what one would consider to be the basic investigative response required to deal with the facts and the position that were known at the time. There were then failures to alert others. There was a failure to alert the Vikings basketball club by people who knew. To be very straight, there was a failure to notify the Fianna Fáil Party locally. That is very clear in the report. It was not notified at that time-----
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-----by those who knew also.
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It is a damning report in that respect. We will follow through on it.
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We hope to arrange time in the House to have a proper consideration of this report.
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We need to let the report speak for itself. It does not have a finding of a cover-up, a conspiracy or collusion. We have to be true to the report of the commission. However, it does have a finding of gross dereliction of duty and the need to reform the law in that respect, which the Minister will now be pursuing with the Law Reform Commission, as recommended by the commission. Yes, we can do better. The State has initiated quite a range of inquiries, as the Deputy iterated, going back to the industrial schools. We have a scoping inquiry under way on the victims of Michael Shine. The Minister for Health is working on that and also on other inquiries at the moment. We must also make sure that State authorities and every official are aware of all the responsibilities people have in respect of any reporting and the necessity to report.
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In my view, in the first instance it bears rearticulation that any abuse allegation should be reported to the Garda.
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At the outset, the Deputy made an assertion in respect of the Minister. She kind of made a few leaps and sort of said that the Minister is saying that women lie in court cases. That is outrageous and should be withdrawn. There is no room for that in debates of this kind. We are all coming to this issue in a bona fide way. That is the first point I would make. There is no agenda here. We agree that violence against women and domestic violence, in particular, is at an appalling level. There are multiple factors responsible for that and legislation can help. The reforms the previous Government and this one have introduced, particularly the establishment of Cuan, the expansion of refuge places, which needs to happen faster and at a more accelerated pace if we can get the infrastructure delivered, and a range of other measures are testament to that. There are also cultural issues and issues to deal with the increased prevalence of violent pornography online and so forth, which we really have to deal with and which is a factor in the level of violence against women and the misogyny we are experiencing in our societies. The Minister has sought within the constitutional framework and within constitutional parameters to deal with the issue of disclosure. The Civil Law and Criminal Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill endeavours to do that to ensure, in the first instance, that judicial oversight governs the disclosure of any counselling records so that the rights of victims to privacy are always taken into account. On 19 May, the Minister brought forward further amendments to the legislation to further restrict the disclosure of counselling records. In this context, the presumption of non-disclosure was introduced in relation to these records. A presumption of non-disclosure ensures the legal status of these records is that they are not to be released except in certain circumstances. The current protection regime will also be extended to the following personal records: medical records, child protection records and social work records. Those records often contain highly personal information and are currently routinely disclosed. These reforms will ensure that any disclosure of sensitive material only occurs where necessary and always subject to strict judicial scrutiny. It is a significant strengthening of the law over what we have. It restores the original intent of the original legislation and it is a better balance between competing rights. Of course, the constitutional rights are significant in terms of the accused's rights to a fair trial. The Minister is not just saying this for the sake of saying it. There are significant constitutional issues that have to be navigated in the drafting of this legislation. This is a significant improvement on where we are and it should be acknowledged as such.
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I appreciate the Deputy has acknowledged that it is not easy and that there are difficulties in terms of framing legislation within constitutional parameters here. That is at the core of this. I would have much empathy with the broad argument in terms of the disclosure of counselling notes. However, this legislation represents a very significant improvement and strengthening of the legislation on behalf of women, in particular, as opposed to what we had. There had been a request for additional time. My understanding is that was facilitated by the Chief Whip, and there will be two hours and 30 minutes in total this evening for the conclusion of the legislation.
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