Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am concerned about the amount of time being allocated to discuss the Prisons Bill 2015 which, I understand, will only be 15 minutes. We welcome the Prisons Bill because it seeks to close St. Patrick's Institution, but the Department of Justice and Equality, during the Dáil debates, sneaked in a provision on certain persons who are serving sentences of imprisonment for the purposes of deportation or removal from the State and to change the Title of the Bill to take account of that. There are also technical amendments related to warrants issued by courts in Dublin. I imagine they are topics which Senators would wish to debate in this House. When these matters have arisen previously, there has been debate around them. It seems strange these topics are being sneaked into a Bill that is about the closure of St. Patrick's Institution. I am concerned there has not been a proper chance to debate it in the Seanad and I ask the Leader to consider the amount of time being allocated for that discussion.

I also propose an amendment to the Order of Business, if possible. I request that the Minister of State, Deputy Joe McHugh, be invited to the House to debate yesterday's High Court ruling on the levies charged on ferry services to the Aran Island ports of Kilronan and Inis Mór. Based on the ruling, the ferry company has said it will discontinue the ferry service to Inis Mór in January 2016. This comes on foot of the decoupling of a public service obligation, PSO contract for the ferry service to the Aran Islands by a previous Minister of State, Deputy Dinny McGinley, which split the three Aran Islands into separate contracts. Consequently, there is now no PSO to Inis Mór which means the islanders are at the behest of the private company which runs the ferry service. The island could be without a ferry service from January onwards. We are running out of time before Christmas and it must be addressed urgently. Will the Leader call on the Minister of State, Deputy McHugh, to see if he has one hour today to discuss what his Department will do to try to reinstate the PSO contract and to get the stakeholders - the islanders, the private ferry company in question, Galway County Council and his Department - to resolve the situation this side of Christmas in order that the service can be continued.