Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am not saying that was not the case, but it was an administrative process. Presumably, if the Minister were going to change a blanket bog or any other NHA - they are not all blanket bogs and raised bogs - as she has done in this case, before she would use the law to change it, she would follow the exact same process. Therefore, the argument put up by the Minister does not hold water.

When I was a Minister on many occasions when I went home and thought about the argument I put to the Opposition it sounded a bit hollow even to myself, not to mind the person on the other side of the argument. When the Minister comes to do some other NHA, she might do it in a big review or in a specific review, if a specific problem arises she might follow the exact same process but the next time when she gets to the point of having a legal power to do it, she will be able to say that she has followed the process as she did with the blanket bogs and she has the legal power to do it without going back to the Oireachtas and publishing a new Bill. In other words, the point I make is that the Minister should make the ability to do what she is trying to do in one specific instance, general, but that would not stop her continuing with the very good practice in terms of how she gets to the point of where she invokes the law. All I am saying is that I do not see why the Minister would have to bring in a special Bill the next time she wants to make a similar change. What we will end up with is the introduction of a County Meath NHA amendment Bill and county Connemara amendment Bill in each instance rather than saying we need to have a mechanism in place that deals with the issue, tells us the process to follow and then states that having followed all the processes, one then uses the law and makes the thing happen. I will press the amendments.