Red Cross and school database legislation
Seán Ó Fearghaíl seeks urgent Red Cross legislation and raises concerns about the primary online database forms. The Minister has no publication date for the Bill and promises to check the database issue.
No. 76 on the legislative list is the Red Cross (amendment) Bill. Recent media reports on the resignation of the secretary general and the heads of finance and communications of the Irish Red Cross, which would indicate there is something going on within that particular organisation, suggest the need for some urgency in respect of the introduction of that legislation.
Some weeks ago, the Tánaiste, having communicated with the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy O'Sullivan, on the primary online database, POD, system, suggested that forms in which people are asked to identify whether they are black Irish, white Irish or of a particular ethnicity had been withdrawn. However, I understand they have not been withdrawn. Perhaps the Minister would clarify the position.
Comment on this
No date is available yet for publication of the Red Cross (amendment) Bill, and I do not have any knowledge of the specific issues raised by the Deputy in relation to the Irish Red Cross.
With regard to the POD, the error arose as a result of the inadvertent use of questions from a previous census rather than the most recent one. My understanding is that the new forms have been made available. However, I will check that out and come back to the Deputy on it.