Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have no problems with the amendments. We are dealing with quite technical matters, and we can all acknowledge this is quite technical and an area we do not interact with in our daily lives. We are on page 75 of the legislation that was passed on Second Stage and there are five pages left, yet we have 22 pages of amendments. These amendments are not like the amendments we dealt with earlier, which sought to delete words or technical details, but, instead, are supplanting entire sections and chapters of the legislation. I have no problem with that and I understand where the Minister of State is coming from in regard to the Companies Bill, as it stands.

The problem I have concerns a request I have made before and which I hope will find more favourable ears this time. It makes it very difficult for Opposition and perhaps some Government Deputies when we get amendments reasonably late in the day which do not only amend the legislation but basically add another 50% to it in areas that were not looked at in the original legislation, would not have been dealt with on the heads of the Bill or on Second Stage, and which were not flagged. The point I am making is simple. I understand that the officials might be under pressure. However, when the legislation is published, we get an explanatory memorandum with notes for each section, up to a certain point. To have further explanatory notes at this stage would make it a lot easier for us in considering how the legislation interacts with company law and all the rest, given we are dealing not just with this but with the deadline for finance committee amendments at 11 a.m. tomorrow. While we can deal with the shorter amendments that change a word or a line, when we are changing the entire Bill or adding to it, even if that is to make it more robust, I suggest that, if possible, we would have a note to help explain this. It is about ensuring the company law provisions are dealt with properly. Speaking for myself, it would make my life a lot easier and we might be able to get through this more quickly.