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Seanad
‹ Order of Business

Intoxicating Liquor Bill and broadcasting funding

Summary

Senator McDowell sought to take all stages of the Intoxicating Liquor Bill and, if not, an assurance on priority after recess, while also calling for a debate on public service broadcasting funding. Senator Devine then formally proposed an amendment seeking the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs on mother and baby homes.

I wish to propose an amendment to the Order of Business proposed by the Leader. I propose that all Stages of No. 5, the Intoxicating Liquor (Amendment) Bill 2017, be taken today. I would be disposed to withdrawing my amendment if the Leader is in a position gives the House an assurance that the remaining Stages will be taken as a matter of priority in the weeks after the Easter recess.

It is time that this House had a proper debate on where the funding of public service broadcasting in Ireland is going. It is all very well for the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Denis Naughten, to say he has asked the joint committee, of which I am a member, to look at alternative funding models but many people have taken exception to the suggestion that every large tablet other than a mobile phone should attract a television licence fee or something like that. This House should debate the issue thoroughly. There are many other models, such as earmarking a portion of the local property tax for the fee and imposing it on every house, or giving responsibility for collecting the fee to an agency such as the Electricity Supply Board, which supplies to every single dwelling and commercial premises in the country. It would be a retrograde step to ask people for over €150 per year for the capacity to receive television programmes, however indirectly, on their tablets and portable computers and it would be deeply unpopular with the people. It is about time that the management in RTE realised that there cannot be an increase in the licence fee as it is currently constituted. If somebody had a house in Dublin and a holiday caravan in Skerries, they would have to come up with over €300 per annum for their licence fees.

If they want to earn that kind of money to pay it over to the State, at current marginal rates of tax and USC, they will have to earn over €600 for the privilege. I am fully in favour of public service broadcasting and its proper funding, but we cannot have a situation where RTE is encouraged to think it will get more money on this front and that it will be imposed on people across the board just because they have a laptop at their disposal. I ask the Leader to arrange for the Minister for Communications, Cllimate Action and Environment, Deputy Denis Naughten, to come to the House to debate this issue with us.

Comment on this

I propose an amendment to the Order of Business. I would like an invitation to be extended as a matter of urgency to the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Katherine Zappone, to come to the Chamber to respond to questions on the second interim report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes which was published yesterday and her response to it. The survivor groups waited anxiously for eight months for the report to be published and their experiences to be validated by the State. Yesterday, amid the noise from the water committee and on other issues, they received validation that the lies and their experiences did not matter. They are reeling from the shock and speechless for now at their dismissal in the report. This compounds the pain and emotional distress for those blighted by the cruelty wrought upon them. It is laughable that Judge Murphy found no evidence of abuse because 600 people gave harrowing evidence to the commission, in many instances backed up by medical documents, of the physical, emotional and sexual violence that made up their daily lives. The Minister also talked to survivors, yet she agrees with the commission's statement. The dogs in the street know that abuse of an horrific nature occurred. I have counselled many survivors and I am privy to the extremities of the twisted abuse they suffered. It was a sadistic environment and a reign of terror by religious orders with State support and involvement. The report is an attempt at washing Ireland's dirtiest open secret - our concentration camps, our babies for adoption factories and our slave trade. Look at the length of time it took for the Magdalen women to be given an apology. They were made to beg for years. Even now, what was promised remains to be fulfilled. As the final report is not due to be published until next year, there is still time to extend the terms of reference. Survivors have the right to know who they are, where they came from and who their people are. They have the right to know why the adoptees are treated differently in the report. Is there a hierarchy in Ireland's concentration camps? There was a recommendation that there be an amnesty from prosecution in order that those who were involved would give evidence. They should be subpoenaed and not treated with kid gloves. Survivors have asked me to ask the Houses and the Minister responsible where is the decency and empathy and where the moral compass lies in determining whether heinous wrongs will be investigated and addressed. Who in this Chamber believes the State has not been implicated in the savage cruelty inflicted, the slavery and torture of very vulnerable women, girls and infants? The survivors I have mentioned all seek truth, justice and accountability. They want more than tea and sympathy. The terms of reference of the commission must be extended. Will the Leader ask the Minister to come to the House to address these issues?

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Denis O'Donovan An Cathaoirleach Fianna Fáil

Is the Senator formally proposing an amendment to the Order of Business?

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