To see Ivana receiving the award for "Gay Friendly Politician of the Year" at the GALAs, please click on the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50vRu2bXuDw
Order of Business
Senator Ivana Bacik: I add my voice to Senator Alex White’s tribute to the very distinguished public servant who died this week, Mr. Paddy MacKernan. He was a former Secretary General at the Department of Foreign Affairs and I knew him personally. He was a remarkable man, warm and generous, with a distinguished public service career serving as a diplomat in many Irish embassies and as Secretary General. I note his passing and extend my sympathies to his wife Caitríona and his family.
I seek a debate on the report of the Garda Inspectorate and the concerns arising from the commentary on it. Senator Hannigan has also asked for this debate. Yesterday at the meeting of the Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women’s Rights we examined the important issue of self-defence for householders in the context of burglary. We are preparing position papers on this. It was interesting to note that both the Irish Council for Civil Liberties and Irish Rural Link, who made presentations to the committee yesterday, agreed legislation is only part of the way we should deal with isolated householders concerned about the limits of their protection in law. We should also examine policing. In the context of a proposal for a reduction in the 24-hour cover at Garda stations, this is of great concern. It is interesting that groups seen as coming from very different places are in agreement that increased policing cover is crucial.
I also seek a debate on domestic violence, taking up Senator MacDonald’s point. The Civil Partnership Bill, although welcome in many respects, will make the position worse for cohabitees through its amendments to the Domestic Violence Act. It may lessen the protection for cohabitants at risk of violence, for example, by requiring that they prove they have been cohabiting immediately before the application for the safety order. There is also a serious omission in the legislation in that it does not cover a couple with a child in common but who are not cohabiting. Women’s Aid has been doing great work on this but we could have a useful debate in this House on domestic violence and legal protections particularly because the Civil Partnership Bill will be before the House shortly.
Order of Business
Senator Ivana Bacik: I echo the words of Senator Alex White in calling for a debate on the ownership of national schools. While Archbishop Martin’s comments that the Catholic monopoly, as he put it, over schooling is not tenable are welcome, some caution is necessary. The archbishop referred, in the reported version of his speech, to the management of schools rather than ownership. If we are to have debate on this matter we must also look at the ownership of schools that are being paid for and maintained by the State and yet remain, as far as we can tell, predominantly in the ownership of the Catholic church. A debate is needed to ensure there is greater choice for parents and children as to where they receive their education.
I renew my call to the Leader for a timeframe for the introduction of the Climate Protection Bill and the Civil Partnership Bill. The Leader responded yesterday but did not give a commitment as to when those Bills will be introduced or any sort of promise as to whether they would be introduced. There has been a long lead-in for both Bills. We heard accusations of Ministers sleeping in the other House last week and there is a danger that Ministers might be seen to be sleeping on the job if the Bills I referred to are not introduced very shortly because there has been plenty of preparation time.
I introduced the Climate Protection Bill to the House and we called a vote on it in the last number of weeks. There has been plenty of preparation time available to the Government and there are plenty of models for climate protection legislation to be introduced without further delay. We are facing into the Copenhagen climate summit in December. This is something that cannot be left on the long finger. The Stop Climate Chaos campaign organised a massive human hourglass on Sandymount Strand last weekend to show that time is running out and we need legislative action on this issue. I ask for an answer on that.
I support Senator Healy-Eames in her call for a debate on bilateral adoption agreements, with particular reference to Vietnam. It is of real concern to hear that the Vietnamese authorities have now, I understand, cancelled the licence for the agency with which Irish couples have been working. A great number of individuals and couples in Ireland have been left in limbo and do not know where they stand regarding their prospective adoptions of Vietnamese children. We need the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Mary Harney, to come into the House to answer questions on this matter.
Order of Business
Senator Ivana Bacik: I join my colleagues in congratulating former Senator Alan Kelly on his election to the European Parliament. Not only did he run a great campaign but he was, I think, the only candidate to have his own rap song, which I understand has become a cult classic on YouTube. I also congratulate the councillors who were elected lord mayor, particularly Emer Costello, the new lord mayor of
I support Senator Fitzgerald’s call for a debate on the cancellation of surgery in Crumlin
children’s hospital and the effect of the cutbacks there. Two weeks ago I had the privilege of meeting mothers, who are involved in the magic mum group, of children who are seriously ill and awaiting surgery in Crumlin. These mothers told me in great detail their heartbreaking stories of surgery being delayed or postponed due to cuts. I understand from them that even before the announced cuts, services in Crumlin were seriously inadequate for the level of injuries and chronic illnesses presenting. This hospital is the national centre for very sick children and it is wrong to make cutbacks in such a centre when services were already inadequate. I wrote to the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney, and the head of the HSE, and I ask the Leader to arrange a debate on this issue.
I ask the Leader to indicate whether the legislation promised by the Green Party will be introduced before the end of this term. I refer in particular to the climate change Bill and the civil partnership Bill, which will presumably form part of the review of the programme for Government which the Green Party has sought. These Bills are long overdue and we need to see them in this House. I hope we can debate them before the end of this term but I do not think we should hold our breath.
Order of Business
Senator Ivana Bacik: If we accept that education is a right, not a privilege, as the 15,000 students argued yesterday, we must accept that it should be free at the point of access. Of course the rich should pay more but they should do so through a fair and progressive taxation system. Let us have a debate on taxation. I suggested in the House that we should not stop with 2% for people earning over €100,000 per year. Let us debate increasing the rate to 3% for people earning more than €150,000. There are people in this country earning that amount of money and they should be taxed more. I call for a debate on fair taxation, which would allow us to continue with the proud tradition of universal social benefits such as health and education. We should have more universality, particularly in the health system.
Will the Leader clarify his response yesterday regarding the civil partnership Bill? When is it proposed to introduce it? He suggested that it would be in the next session but it was promised before the end of this year. Among many other U-turns, there has been a U-turn on that Bill by the Government.
Order of Business
Senator Ivana Bacik: I ask the Leader for a debate on universal access to public services. There has been much talk on universality in the wake of last week’s budget because the Government is clearly set on attacking the principle of universal access to public services and introducing a means test for a range of benefits. In saying this, I include the signal by the Minister for Finance, Deputy Brian Lenihan, last week that he would be reviewing the universal payment of child benefit. There is immense fear and confusion, particularly among the elderly but also among other sectors, who fear all kinds of other benefits could well be subject to a means test and no longer granted on a universal basis.
There was another way to ensure the rich would pay more and that was simply to tax them more. However, the Government did not do so and instead took the dishonest step of imposing a levy, which is a very crude instrument. A simple levy of 1% applies to those earning up to €100,000 and a levy of 2% applies to those earning over that amount. This does not tax the rich sufficiently. Doing so would be a fairer way to raise revenue rather than withdrawing public benefits. We need a debate on universality to determine the Government’s true ideology and what it really believes about universal access to public services.
We have seen U-turns in respect of various measures in the budget. There appears to be one in respect of the Civil Partnership Bill. We saw the heads and were promised the Bill itself would be published this September. What has happened to it? Are we to see yet another U-turn by the Government?
Order of Business:
Senator Ivana Bacik: I second Senator Norris’s motion to amend the Order of Business to withdraw the civil partnership Bill, for the reasons he has mentioned. The Government has treated him extremely shabbily in respect of this Bill. I note the Deputy Leader’s comments about the time-frame for the introduction of Government legislation on civil partnership. It is the first time that it has been put on record that the heads of the Bill would be introduced in March followed by the Bill in September. That is welcome but time is slipping by. At this point same sex couples should seek and get full equality with opposite sex couples, nothing more and nothing less in terms of legal recognition. That is a core principle of equality.
I wish to renew a call I made last term for a debate on women’s representation in the Oireachtas. Senator Norris mentioned Barack Obama’s successful run in the
Senator Clinton’s candidacy has been a real inspiration for women in the