Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)

I wish to outline briefly why the proposal to take Report Stage now is not agreed. I do not accept the proposal to rush the Report Stage debate on the Bill. The Minister expects the Dáil to pass this legislation in the next 36 hours. As I was coming to the Chamber this morning, I was still being given further lists of amendments to be moved on Report Stage. We do not even have a composite list of the amendments to be considered on Report Stage. I have calculated that 44 pages of amendments have been tabled already. It seems that approximately 400 amendments will be moved.

The Minister has suggested that some of his amendments represent a dramatic response to the second report of the Morris tribunal. I do not oppose some of his proposed amendments. If his approach is as dramatic as he has suggested it is, however, the amendments need to be teased out and debated properly. Therefore, we need to adopt Deputy Costello's suggestion of recommittal to Committee Stage, or we should pause for reflection and allow adequate time for debate.

Established parliamentary procedures, dating back to the 19th century or before, are in place to enable legislation to be considered properly over different stages. Such procedures have been followed as long as we have participated in parliamentary democracy on this island and on our neighbouring island. Under our procedures, issues of principle are considered on Second Stage and issues of detail are dealt with on Committee Stage. We have gone beyond those phases of the process in our consideration of the Garda Síochána Bill 2004. The new proposals will not be the subject of that critical process of examination because they have been introduced with unseemly haste and a short amount of time has been allowed for debate on them.

We need to pause for reflection if we are to ensure that the public can have confidence in the final Garda Síochána legislation. The Bill we are considering deals with issues which affect the positions of more than 12,000 members of the Garda. Some of the Minister's proposals may affect such people. It may be popular to trample on the Garda in some ways in the aftermath of the second report of the Morris tribunal, but I will not stand for that. The Garda Síochána has to answer certain questions and certain changes need to be made. We need to be firm and fair in our dealings with this legislation. Some of the changes the Minister proposed may not pass the fairness test. I would like them to be amended so they can pass that test.

I do not believe the Minister, Deputy McDowell, is adopting the right approach to this legislation. I have made clear that Fine Gael will co-operate with the Government to ensure that a good Garda Síochána Bill can be passed this year. The leader of Fine Gael, Deputy Kenny, has proposed that the Bill be stalled during the summer recess so that it can be reviewed independently and brought into line with the recommendations of Mr. Justice Morris. The leader of the Labour Party, Deputy Rabbitte, has made a proposal that would give Deputies further time to consider the Bill. The House could sit well into July, if necessary, to achieve that. I will accept either of the approaches, which seek to ensure that the public can have confidence in the legislation and the Garda can be happy with it.

The process pursued by the Minister is a recipe for legislative disaster. It is absolutely inevitable that this legislation will result in a court challenge. I do not want that to happen. I want a good Bill to be put in place this year. Fine Gael will co-operate in that process, but it cannot co-operate in a process that might result in bad legislation.

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