Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I made the point that we should adjourn until the Supreme Court determination, which may be in a number of months. I have no difficulty with the committee's seeking a shorter adjournment of a week or so to allow the Minister of State to consider the matter and come back before us to discuss it further. However, it is inappropriate for us to proceed to consider a Bill in respect of which there was a Court of Appeal decision that may no longer stand.

Finally, it was unfair of Deputy Brophy to say what he said. Irrespective of what happened yesterday, I have an obligation to raise the matter. If I had not raised it here this morning and we had proceeded in our consideration of the Bill, we would rightly be criticised by others, who would ask why we did not even take into account the fact that the Supreme Court is considering the Bill. I did not raise the matter yesterday. I did not formalise my decision not to do so until late yesterday. The reason I did not raise it yesterday was that we were dealing with other matters. It is not a huge inconvenience when people turn up to a meeting for somebody to make an application to adjourn.