Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I commend Deputy Collins on this worthwhile Bill which has been on the agenda for a number of years. Unfortunately, all of us have had bad experiences with vouchers at some stage. This committee has always worked very constructively, with a very strong lead from the Chair, on any matters that have come before it.

This is the third matter. We have previously had Deputy Quinlivan's Bill concerning the sale of tickets and the banded hours Bill from Deputy Cullinane. Good legislation has been introduced but rather than progress the legislation, the Government asks us to wait and says it has its own Bill. It reminds me of the kid in the playground who says "that is my ball", and grabs it back. If the general public knew how business is being done in here, they would be a bit gobsmacked. This strikes me as a perfectly good Bill. As the Chair said earlier, no legislation is perfect but we can work with it. The idea that our well-paid civil servants spend an awful lot of time duplicating work that has already been done, good work by Deputy Niall Collins in this case, and by Deputies Quinlivan and Cullinane prior to this, makes absolutely no sense. We just need to call that out.