Vol. 214 Tuesday, No. 4 25 June 2013 DÍOSPÓIREACHTAÍ PARLAIMINTE PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES SEANAD ÉIREANN TUAIRISC OIFIGIÚIL—Neamhcheartaithe (OFFICIAL REPORT—Unrevised) Business of Seanad 231 Order of Business 231 Employment Equality Act 1998 (Section 12)(Church of Ireland College of Education) Order 2013: Motion 246 Electricity Regulation Act 1999 (Restricted Electrical Works) Regulations 2013: Referral to Committee 246 Social Welfare and Pensions (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) 247 Request to move Adjournment of Seanad under Standing Order 30 248 Social Welfare and Pensions (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) 248 Health (Amendment) Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages 273 Adjournment Matters ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������284 25/06/2013TT01500NAMA Staff Recruitment �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������284 25/06/2013UU01100Post Office Network 287 SEANAD ÉIREANN Dé Máirt, 25 Meitheamh 2013 Tuesday, 25 June 2013 Chuaigh an Cathaoirleach i gceannas ar 1430 pm Machnamh agus Paidir. Reflection and Prayer. Business of Seanad 25/06/2013B00200An Cathaoirleach: I have notice from Senator Lorraine Higgins that, on the motion for the Adjournment of the House today, she proposes to raise the following matter: In light of the recent revelations of a former employee of NAMA (details supplied), the need for the Minister for Finance to refer matters to the Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, if appropriate, in the interests of transparency and accountability for the tax- payer I have also received notice from Senator Martin Conway of the following matter: The need for the Minister for Social Protection to discontinue plans to put social welfare payments out to tender in order to protect rural post offices and the hundreds of jobs associ- ated with them. I regard the matters raised by the Senators as suitable for discussion on the Adjournment and they will be taken at the conclusion of business. Order of Business 25/06/2013B00400Senator Maurice Cummins: The Order of Business is No 38, motion regarding the Em- ployment Equality Act 1998 (Section 12) (Church of Ireland College of Education) Order 2013; No 1, motion regarding the Electricity Regulation Act 1999 (Restricted Electrical Works) Reg- ulations 2013, to be taken on the conclusion of No. 38 without debate; No. 2, Social Welfare and Pensions (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2013 - Committee Stage (resumed), to be taken on the conclusion of No 1 and to conclude no later than 6 pm; and No 3, Health (Amendment) Bill 2013 - Committee Stage, to be taken at 6 pm 231 Seanad Éireann As no Committee Stage amendments to the Health (Amendment) Bill have been submitted, and if no further amendments are proposed for Report Stage, I suggest to the House that we deal with Committee and Remaining Stages of that Bill this evening, subject to the agreement of the House. If the House has an objection to that we can have Report Stage on another day. I know that the shocking revelations in the Anglo Irish Bank telephone conversation record- ings have caused anger and resentment and will no doubt be raised on the Order of Business. However, I ask Members to be very careful not to say anything to prejudice what is likely to be a most complex and technical case to be taken in the Irish courts I ask Members to bear that in mind. I know the anger that people have in that regard. 25/06/2013C00200Senator Darragh O’Brien: The Leader has made a sensible suggestion for dealing with the Health (Amendment) Bill and we would have no difficulty with taking Committee and Re- maining Stages today I agree with the Leader. All of us are absolutely disgusted and horrified by what we heard in the recent revelations. I will not comment further on them for the very reason the Leader mentioned because we all need to be careful with regard to how future investigations are carried out. While Senator Gilroy might have a problem with this, I remember previous cases where utterances were made in the Oireachtas----- 25/06/2013C00300Senator John Gilroy: We were not in government. 25/06/2013C00400Senator Darragh O’Brien: ----- that prejudiced subsequent court cases We need to be aware that there are ongoing investigations by the Garda, the Director of Corporate Enforce- ment and the Financial Regulator. While they are very important, we all agree that the public deserve answers. I heard the Minister, Deputy Howlin, speak on the radio this morning. It is important that whatever investigation is established is robust and has the proper terms of reference to deal with this. We will need to discuss how that can best be done, whether it is through an Oireachtas committee or a commission of investigation. However, we need to have powers to be able to come to conclusions on this matter. This will certainly play out in the coming days. All of us are disgusted with it and the citizens deserve answers in this regard. It will move on in the next few days and I encourage the Government to establish as speedily as possible the banking inquiry in whatever guise is best to get the results and the answers we require. I welcome the reversal of the cut in resource hours that was announced three weeks ago by the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Quinn The additional 12% cut in resource teaching hours has been overturned. I was interested to note that one could overturn a cut that apparently was not actually a cut in the first place because the Government argued at the time that this was not a cut. However, what is important is that the children who require these extra resource-teaching hours will get them. I bring to colleagues’ attention that the Minister has not reversed the cuts to the special needs assistants. I welcome that the Minister was able to go to Cabinet and find the additional moneys to ensure that resource hours were given to children who need them. However, some 22,000 children have special needs assistants. That figure has increased from 20,000 last year That cut has not been reversed I encourage the Minister, Deputy Quinn, to ensure that children with special needs, who often have distinct and difficult learning disabilities, are not affected. While I welcome the reversal of part of this cut, which is important, I ask colleagues opposite to examine the detail of it because the cut to special needs 232 25 June 2013 assistants’ hours has not been reversed, and that must happen. The Seanad played a role in this. We raised it here first on the Order of Business last Tuesday. 25/06/2013D00200Senator Mary M. White: Hear, hear 25/06/2013D00300Senator Darragh O’Brien: It was raised by a number of colleagues on all sides of the House, including Senator Mary Ann O’Brien and many others. This is too important an issue to let go. The Minister should go further and ensure that the cuts to special needs assistants’ hours are also reversed 25/06/2013D00400Senator Ivana Bacik: I thank the Leader for anticipating that a great deal of concern and anger would be expressed today on the floor of the House at the revelations contained in the tapes that have been broadcast which came into the possession of the Irish Independent con- cerning the executives of Anglo Irish Bank. We would all share the grave concern and anger that everyone is feeling on hearing the content of those tapes but I think we all agree that it is imperative that there is a robust inquiry into the background to the tapes and the events around the tapes. It assists us now in knowing that these tapes exist and that there is this method of establishing, to a greater degree of certainty, what was really going on around the events of the dreadful bank guarantee in September 2008 If there is any positive to be taken from this it is that we may have greater assistance and there may be more objective material available to assist in proving what happened than we had previously thought. That is a positive. It is not only a robust civil inquiry we require of whatever type, be it a commission of inquiry or an Oireachtas inquiry. It is also important that the Garda and the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforce- ment are given every resource necessary to enable them investigate any criminal offences that may have been committed I welcome the announcement today by the Minister, Deputy Ruairí Quinn, that the level of resource teachers available to students with special educational needs will be retained at 2012-13 levels. It is a good day for special education, which is an area the Labour Party has passionately defended since coming into office. It is welcome that the Minister, Deputy Ruairí Quinn, has today secured Cabinet agreement to release 500 additional teaching posts to schools this September to cope with the unpredicted rise in the demand for these resources. I know he fought at Cabinet to ring-fence the spending in this area in line with his, and the Labour Party’s, long-standing commitment. However, he is also setting up a review, and that is important, as to the reason the rise in demand for special needs resources of 12% is so much greater than the rise in the school population of 1.3%. The review group is to report in a timely fashion in Sep- tember, and that will be very useful to us in terms of allocation of future resources. I ask the Leader for a debate on patronage and on increased provision of multidenomina- tional schooling. I know others have called for that previously, and that we have had some debate on this.