Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This was a very important amendment. Elements of it could be improved, but it deals with a matter which is the subject of significant public debate. I will be seeking to re-enter it or a variation thereon on Report Stage. I will appeal the mystifying decision to rule it out of order to the Ceann Comhairle. The Bill addresses two discrete areas of criminal law sexual offences policy. Under the reasoning employed to rule my amendment out of order, if the Bill only contained provisions on presumptive minimum sentencing and I presented an amendment in the form of the section of the Bill dealing with incest, that amendment would be ruled out of order. The third Act set out in section 5 of the Bill is the same Act that amendment No. 1, dealing with the treatment of evidence in prosecutions for such offences, proposed to amend.

Sometimes entirely unrelated amendments are inserted but this is quite closely related to the debate.