I welcome each of the provisions of the Bill because behind many of those provisions are either victims or groups who have campaigned for the Government to act. The Minister has hit the ground running in the past number of months. The breadth of the Bill demonstrates his good faith in having worked with many of the people who sought these provisions. I spent all of Christmas listening to the Opposition telling us this is a do-nothing Government that has introduced no legislation. Now, apparently, there is too much in the legislation. I will leave it to the Opposition to make its case. A Bill of this nature is often about trying to get provisions into law as quickly as possible. That is not being done in order that the Government can tick a box but because there are groups that have been asking for these provisions to be included in Irish law. By including them in this Bill, they will go onto the Statute Book in a speedier way. Behind many of the Bill's provisions are people who worked to secure them. I will start with the provisions mentioned by Deputy Nash, namely, those dealing with historical convictions for same-sex relations. I welcome to the Gallery my former Dublin City Council colleague Kieran Rose, along with Eddie, Karl, Brian and the many others who are here. Days like today do not happen by accident. They happen because people, having first put their head in their hands, then put their heads around a table and tried to seek changes to the law in a practical and determined way that would deliver results. The LGBT community in Ireland has had many celebrated days in public spaces, such as the forecourt of Dublin Castle. The very small number of people who were convicted for having same-sex relationships are the people who were treated most harshly by Irish society. While a Second Stage debate in the Dáil on a Thursday afternoon might not be the celebrated public event other LGBT events have been, it is an incredibly important one. We think of the people who faced those convictions and the unfair and unjust way Irish society treated them. It is only right, having come so far in terms of equality legislation, that they are not being left behind and were not forgotten. I appreciate the Minister's support in this regard. A provision not included in the legislation is one to implement the proposed Jennie's law, which will be the subject of a different Bill the justice committee is considering. I commend the committee Cathaoirleach, Deputy Carthy, on the conduct of pre-legislative scrutiny yesterday. Not everything was shoehorned into this Bill. The Minister decided to leave out some measures in order to scrutinise them further. The Bill to implement Jennie's law is another example of an issue where he has listened to a group, responded to a need and brought forward a legislative proposal. Some of the proposals in the Bill before us were brought forward by Opposition Deputies and some by Government Deputies. I commend those Deputies on their efforts. There are days when one feels one has achieved very little in this House. However, the provisions in this Bill mean many Deputies will see their ideas and contributions brought into law. I particularly commend the people who campaigned for a ban on sex for rent. This is an important issue that was discussed at the housing committee. I acknowledge the provisions to amend the Multi-Unit Developments Act. As a member of the public accounts committee, I am always very concerned about how we spend public money. Due to the successful campaigning of the Construction Defects Alliance, Pat Montague and the many other people who have met us over the years on that issue, the Government will have a scheme that supports people with defective apartments. The mechanism by which we are addressing those defects and the financial vehicle we are using will be owners' management companies and in many cases these companies and their structures are not fit for purpose. They are not regulated correctly and both their makeup and their structure leaves a lot to be desired. I say that not due to any great conspiracy out there, as often it is a small number of residents in an apartment block who are left with the job of running an OMC. They often wrangle with the developer and wrestle with legacy issues. They do not have the same access to legal advice, and so on. Reform of the MUDS Act is incredibly important and the first step of that is for the Minister to transfer responsibility to the Minister for housing. The present Minister has discharged his duty on that issue and the pressure will now be on the Minister, Deputy Browne, who is already very keen to make amendments so when we start to distribute money for apartment defects we will know it is going to entities that are regulated. There should be a register of owners' management companies, a regulator of them and also a mechanism for people who are subject to such companies to resolve disputes. All this was dealt with in the legislation on apartment defects, so I will not dwell on that. I note other provisions on pepper spray and note also the Minister's comments on the counselling notes. It is certainly a more tricky and difficult area but the Minister said we will see further amendments on Committee Stage, which I look forward to. I think everybody in this House is in the same place when it comes to what we can achieve. The question is around how we can achieve that. I know the Minister will do what is possible and perhaps we can push that as far as possible. I forget the phrasing he used but I think he referred to working within whatever constitutional limits are there. We need to go to the very edge of the limits of that in order to protect victims. I note the provisions on the duties of the Chief Justice, and so on. We must always be very careful about the Judiciary. The Constitution obviously provides for the three branches of the Judiciary, the Government and the Oireachtas. There is incredible accountability for two of those branches almost daily in the media, in this House and so on and it is a matter for the Judiciary to respond to its democratic role in society. However, when you look at reactions like there were last week when there were reports that perhaps too lenient a sentence was given in a case involving a single-punch killing - I will not say anything about that case because it may be subject to appeal and I do not want to in any way interfere with it - it does make you, as a Member of the Oireachtas, reflect on how the same level of accountability that applies to these branches does not apply to the Judiciary. It is for the Chief Justice and the Judiciary to reflect on that themselves, to find ways in which they can build confidence and ways they can communicate with the public about why things happen. While we are all individual Members of this House, we also realise we are a collective and we regulate for the minority or regulate for individuals and the Judiciary has that responsibility too. It is a far broader point and one that lies in the courts rather than here but how the Judiciary retains the confidence of the public in the area of sentencing is incredibly important. Last week there was huge hurt in my community and I am sure in many others there are often lingering questions about why something happened yet in a modern society we have no way of questioning or asking why something happened. On previous occasions we asked the courts to send a representative to our joint policing committee so they could talk to us about sentencing and we could talk to them about the impact sentencing has in a working-class area. They felt it was not appropriate for them to attend that JPC because of the separation of powers and perhaps I can understand that but on other occasions I have seen members of the Judiciary attend legal or academic conferences where they have spoken about events, often I suppose to do what I am asking them to, which is to maintain the confidence of the people. It is a very tricky area but we need to demand of them what is demanded of us, which is that they are accountable within the limits and the structures that the Courts Service and the Judiciary have. I thank the Minister, in particular for the provisions of the Bill which I have highlighted.

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The rest of it is working.

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