Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

We will clearly not adopt a report on the scrutiny of this Bill today. Many amendments have been proposed by the Minister, Deputy Pearse Doherty and Deputy Michael McGrath. If we do not do anything today, then we will come back in September and look for independent analysis then. I welcome that the Minister has agreed to fund any independent analysis that this committee wants to do and for which it will choose who does the analysis, if I understand the Minister correctly. The Minister would pay for it and we would get to pick who would do it. Let us get on with the independent analysis to look at this Bill because there are clearly concerns from the European Central Bank and Central Bank of Ireland. There is clearly support in these Houses for protecting people as well as we can in what we are doing. Let us get this show on the road so that when we come back in September, we do not then decide to do this independent analysis which could take until Christmas. If anything, Deputy Michael McGrath's amendment about independent analysis speeds up the process rather than us kicking it to touch, bringing in the Garda deputy commissioner now, and not doing anything until September at the earliest. That would mean we would not even be considering this going to Committee Stage until Christmas.