Accountability and stalled legislation
Senator Mark Daly criticises the lack of consequences for people in positions of influence and expresses disappointment that proposed legislation, including corporate manslaughter and Irish Sign Language measures, is not being advanced.
I know.
I agree with Senator Gerald Nash on the lack of accountability when it comes to senior management. There is an issue in Irish society whereby we have a land of no consequences for people in positions of influence. When they do wrong nothing ever happens to them.
I am disappointed at the lack of legislation being dealt with this afternoon. The Opposition tabled a number of Bills, including on corporate manslaughter and the recognition of Irish sign language. The corporate manslaughter legislation is interesting because it was proposed by the Law Reform Commission ten years ago but has never been dealt with. The reason for this is that the people who would be held accountable are in the public service. They are those who failed in the Blood Transfusion Service Board and who have failed so many other times, including regarding Portlaoise hospital where women died and people knew about it but no action was taken. Individuals should be held to account but this does not happen as a result of the fact that the legislation is not in place. The latter is due to the fact that those in positions of power are ensuring it is not introduced because it is they who would be held to account.
I propose an amendment to the Order of Business to enable the Irish sign language recognition Bill to be published and ask the Deputy Leader to allow for this. The Bill would allow members of the deaf community to interact with the State which they cannot do at present. The more than 5,000 members of the deaf community and their families have no legal basis on which they can ask the Government to ensure there are services for them to interact. The most serious case of this is regarding emergency departments. A member of the deaf community would not be able to communicate with a consultant emergency doctor and there is no provision whereby there must be an interpreter in place. One may be put in place, but it is not necessary to do so. This is covered in one of the many provisions in the Bill. Will the Deputy Leader allow for it to be published? In the autumn, instead of making statements ad nauseam because there is no legislation, Fianna Fáil has legislation which is long overdue and that is ready to be debated.
