It is proposed to take No. 8, motion re referral to joint committee of proposed approval by Dáil Éireann of the Protection of Young Persons (Employment) (Exclusion of Workers in the Fishing and Shipping Sectors) Regulations 2014; No. 9, motion re referral to joint committee of proposed approval by Dáil Éireann for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the establishment of Eurodac (recast) and for the effective application of the Dublin Regulation; No. 22, Radiological Protection (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014 - Order for Report, Report and Final Stages; and No. 23, Merchant Shipping (Registration of Ships) Bill 2013 [Seanad] - Second Stage (resumed).

It is proposed, notwithstanding anything in Standing Orders, that Nos. 8 and 9 shall be decided without debate. Private Members’ business shall be No. 152, motion re mental health. Tomorrow's business after oral questions shall be No. 24, Competition and Consumer Protection Bill 2014 - Order for Report, Report and Final Stages.

Is the proposal for dealing with Nos. 8 and 9 without debate agreed to? Agreed.

The Government was to introduce lifetime community rating by way of statutory instrument on 1 July but this does not appear to have happened. Does the Government still intend to to introduce this and when can it be expected?

I do not have a Bill on that but I will bring the Deputy up to date.

It is a statutory instrument.

I will advise the Deputy.

Item No. 81 in the programme for Government is the technological universities Bill. It is to provide for the establishment of technological universities and the amendment of the Dublin Institute of Technology Act, the Institutes of Technology Act and the Higher Education Authority Act. I understand this proposal is well under way in Dublin in terms of the institutes of technology in Tallaght and Blanchardstown. The same applies in Cork and Tralee but is unclear what is happening in Waterford and Carlow. There are pressing issues in the south east relating to investment, employment and health and there is a sense the Government has neglected the region. The Taoiseach said he would write to me on this issue. When will the Bill be published?

Item No. 93 in the legislative programme is the sale of loan books to unregulated third parties Bill. The Government promised this legislation to address the issue of the sale of loan books by regulated financial institutions to unregulated financial institutions. There has been controversy on this for some time as the sale of loan books to unregulated third parties is growing apace. Thousands of mortgage holders are very anxious about their fate and feel vulnerable because they are not protected by the code of conduct. I want to know when this Bill will be published because it is a pressing issue of great concern to many mortgage holders.

In terms of the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, following a review of the 2012 Act the credit guarantee (amendment) Bill aims to bring about a legislative change necessary to enhance the success of the performance of the scheme. This has been promised by the Government. The Taoiseach will be aware that the Government and the State have failed to get traction in extending credit to small and medium enterprises, SMEs. This is the biggest issue facing many SMEs and the legislation was promised by the Government as an acknowledgment that the 2012 Act was insufficient and that legislative change was required. Will the Taoiseach say when this legislation can be expected?

Item No. 106 in the programme for Government is the industrial relations (amendment) Bill which aims to provide a new legislative framework to address issues arising from the Supreme Court ruling that struck down registered employment agreements, REAs.

When can we expect publication of this particular Bill?

When does the Taoiseach expect the personal injuries assessment board (amendment) Bill to be introduced? The Government has promised to introduce a number of amendments to improve the operation and implementation of the Act.

The Deputy has asked six questions. I will advise him in respect of the statutory instrument. The heads were cleared with regard to the technological universities Bill a number of weeks ago by the Government. Some progress has been made in respect of Waterford and Carlow. The Deputy is well aware of some of the issues which arose. I do not accept the area is being neglected. It is the focus of much attention from the Government and IDA Ireland. I hope the institutions concerned will continue to discuss how best they can meet the strict criteria set down here. The Deputy rightly pointed out Dublin Grangegorman, Cork, Kerry and, to a lesser extent, the west and north west are making some progress.

With regard to the issue in respect of unsecured loans and the sale of mortgages, the latest entry is by PTSB. The previous two which bought mortgage loans like this were both willing to voluntarily comply with the Central Bank code of conduct. We hope this will apply in this case also. The Bill was not due to be published until next year but the Minister for Finance hopes to have it enacted before the end of this year. A deal of work has been done with the Office of the Attorney General and the Central Bank.

The heads of the credit guarantee (amendment) Bill were cleared on 17 June. It will make a number of small amendments to make the scheme more feasible and attractive. I point out the extent of non-mainline bank finances available now, through the involvement of the Silicon Valley Bank from California, the Chinese Investment Corporation, the KfW state bank from Germany and a number of other commercial entities which have acquired banking licences for the provision of credit and access to credit for individual customers.

The industrial relations (amendment) Bill will be later in the year. I do not have a date for the personal injuries assessment board (amendment) Bill but I will advise Deputy Martin of the progress made there.

The Government has committed to holding a referendum on same-sex marriage and the Taoiseach has stated he strongly supports such a referendum. When will the Government set a firm date for this?

This morning, the Cabinet agreed a redress scheme for victims of the barbaric practice of symphysiotomy. Will the Walsh and Murphy reports be published? The Minister has had them for more than a year. Thus far the Government has refused to lift the Statute of Limitations and allow victims who wish to go to the courts to do so. Will the detail of the redress scheme and its framework and procedures be published? Is the Government prepared to lift the Statute of Limitations?

Tá dhá cheist eile agam. Dhá mhí ó shin, mar fhreagra ar cheist a chuir mé chuig an Taoiseach ar chás Bhaile Uí Mhurchú, dúirt sé go raibh sé tiomanta do bhunú rún uile-pháirtí ar an gcás seo agus gheall sé go raibh sé chun an rún seo a dhréachtú agus a chur inár láthair. Thug sé an freagra céanna sin dom gach uair a chuir mé an cheist seo air. Dúirt sé go raibh sé ar intinn aige rún a fhoilsiú an tseachtain seo caite, agus an tseachtain roimhe sin. An féidir leis níos mó eolais a thabhairt dom anois faoi seo? An mbeidh sé ag dul ar aghaidh leis an rún seo?

Maidir leis an tionól bunreachtúil agus an dóigh gur theip ar an Rialtas freagairt ghasta a thabhairt in am maidir leis an tuairisc a tháinig ón tionól, the resolution of the Dáil which established the Constitutional Convention set a timeframe of four months for the Government to respond to its recommendations. The official response to the convention's fourth report, on electoral reform, was due last December. The deadline for the Government's response to the fifth report, on the right of citizens resident outside the State to vote, was in March. The deadline for the Government's response to the sixth report, on blasphemy, was in May. In April, when I asked the Taoiseach about this he told me he acknowledged the Government was not measuring up in terms of allowing time for discussion on the convention's reports. This remains the case and nothing has changed. These reports are building up. I attended many meetings of the Constitutional Convention and it was a very good exercise in citizen participation. The citizen delegates were delighted to be involved. When can we expect the Dáil to have an opportunity to discuss the work and recommendations of the Constitutional Convention?

I regret we are well outside the limit we had set ourselves to have these matters discussed. The problem is that a number of Departments have still not come back with requirements to allow us to bring it to the Dáil and discuss it. I will see to it that the senior officials dealing with the remaining elements respond quickly.

In respect of Ballymurphy, I prepared the motion for all party acceptance and then I received a number of pieces of correspondence from others in Northern Ireland about other issues which arose there which they wanted included. We are working on this to see if we can have a comprehensive motion, which will be discussed with Deputies Martin and Adams shortly. I hope we can do so before the House breaks up for the summer.

Symphysiotomy is another example of a legacy issue whereby this barbaric treatment was imposed on women. Even the Supreme Court stated this on-the-way-out treatment after a section when a child was born was completely unnecessary. Many of these women suffered stress and distress and it caused incontinence, back pain and chronic fatigue and so much psychological damage. Two reports were done: Professor Oonagh Walsh's report on symphysiotomy in Ireland from 1944 to 1984 and Judge Murphy's independent review of issues relating to symphysiotomy. The Minister wanted to get this right. The two reports came before the Government today and they have been approved for publication. Today, the Government approved an ex gratia scheme at a cost of approximately €34 million which will bring closure for women who underwent surgical symphysiotomy. This will be administered by the State Claims Agency. Many of these women are now elderly and have been waiting for decades for closure. It is another element of what we have had to deal with, from Magdalens to mother and baby homes to all of these issues which have been lying around for years and not dealt with. It was absolutely barbaric treatment and I am glad that today it came before the Government, which approved publication of the reports. I understand the Minister has been speaking on this at a public conference. We welcome Professor Walsh's report and the report of Judge Murphy and this morning approved a sum of approximately €34 million to deal with ex gratia payments for these women who went through this horrible experience.

I asked about the referendum.

I apologise. It will be in the spring of next year. We have not named a date yet. A number of other legal issues need to be dealt with, including elements of adoption which are necessary. We would like to have them cleared before we put the marriage equality referendum. It will be in the spring of next year and the Government will decide in due course on an actual date.

I also asked whether the Taoiseach is prepared to lift the Statute of Limitations with regard to symphysiotomy.

It is unnecessary. The Attorney General give a legal opinion on this. We have approved both reports-----

So the answer is "No".

-----and put in €34 million. All of the women who went through this will be able to be dealt with by the ex gratia payment scheme to be administered by the State Claims Agency.

A woman might want to go to court.

It will not be necessary as far as I understand it.

It might not be a course of action the Taoiseach or I might want to take, but somebody else might.

Obviously, people will take the legal advice they get in their own way. We want the scheme which has been approved to bring some closure to these women who went through this.

The Taoiseach can remove the Statute of Limitations.

It is almost a year since the Joint Committee on the Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht held hearings during the pre-legislative stage of the climate change legislation. We are still waiting for the legislation. When will it be published?

When is it likely to be enacted? Will the sectoral plans be published at the same time as the legislation and, if not, when will they be published?

It has gone through the pre-legislative phase and it is now being drafted - the report has come back on it. The targets and objectives set here both for 2020 and for 2030 will be very challenging. We need to be able to work backwards from the 2030 situation in order that whoever is in government from 2020 onwards will not be faced with very significant fines because, in my view, of the way that this was treated before so that targets were set which were very difficult, if not unachievable, for the country to measure up to.

When will it be published?

We have started drafting. I will advise the Deputy on the progress being made on it. It went through the pre-legislative stage already.

When will the climate action and low-carbon development Bill come before the House?

The Taoiseach has just answered that.

That is what I was just talking to Deputy Catherine Murphy about.

Right. Okay.

That is equality now, is it not? Deputy Catherine Murphy was first in and she got the answer.

Point taken.

The regulation of gambling Bill is due in the next session, in 2015 - the Taoiseach has answered that. In the meantime there is an acute need to eliminate radio and television advertising of online gambling and so on. It is a very acute problem.

What Bill is that?

Could the Government introduce a short snappy piece of legislation to deal with that?

The Government approved three amendments to the gambling Bill this morning for the Minister for Finance, where the Revenue Commissioners are involved in terms of licences to deal with online and remote operations for gambling-----

The advertising is the problem.

-----pending the introduction of the gambling regulator.

I want to ask the Taoiseach about medical cards and the Health (General Practitioner Service) Bill 2014 Bill. Will that be scrapped when the Taoiseach replaces the Minister for Health next week?

Hold on a minute.

There is still confusion about medical cards and awful trauma.

What confusion is there about the legislation?

This is the Health (General Practitioner Service) Bill 2014.

That Bill was finished here last week and it has gone to the Seanad.

It has gone to the Seanad.

Ceann amháin eile, the Children First Bill - tá an Taoiseach ag gáire. The Supreme Court made a very serious judgment.

It is awaiting Committee Stage in the Dáil.

However, we never had any debate or discussion on the findings of the Supreme Court.

We will have it when-----

There is a new Minister and I thought he might look at it.

Perhaps the Deputy was absent for the Second Stage debate.

I was not absent, but we ignored the Supreme Court decision in the misappropriation of funds.

The Deputy can get his office to check; there was a debate here.

Not on that, not at all.

Where one public representative receives a massive public relations boost from one newspaper whereby week after week two or three pages of positive reporting for one candidate and negative reporting for the other-----

Hold on a minute. The Deputy should take that up with the press council.

------will this be dealt with in the public sector standards Bill? If the Taoiseach cannot answer this, it is a pity that the Tánaiste in waiting, as christened by the Sunday Independent "wonder woman", is not the Taoiseach's candidate-----

What Bill is the Deputy talking about?

The Bill is the public sector standards Bill.

The public sector standards Bill.

Some of the candidates-----

That is all right. We will find out for the Deputy.

-----in the recent contest to be the leader of the Labour Party were dealt with very harshly by one newspaper and there were reams of paper for wonder woman.

I know the Deputy is interested in this. If I recall correctly, the Deputy, himself, received massive publicity for answering telephone calls or making bills of them. He got more publicity out of that than people did for years of hard labour here.

The Taoiseach did not answer the question.

I call Deputy Kitt.

Now the Deputy is holding the Minister in the Chamber.

She is back.

Later this year.

The new Tánaiste will answer that question.

Regarding the sale of historical documents, I ask about the national cultural institutions Bill which I believe it to reform the National Gallery, IMMA and the Crawford Art Gallery. The Taoiseach might be aware that yesterday's Irish Independent made reference to the sale of a farewell letter from Kevin Barry to his mother and other items that were for sale. Will anything in this legislation help to get the State to acquire some of these documents?

When is the Bill due?

The cultural institutions Bill will be later in the year. Obviously, the idea here would be that if these things go for sale hopefully they will be bought by Irish people. The Bill, which is due later in the year, may be reflective of some of that.