Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

It is amazing that the first amendment the Minister has presented to the House requires recommittal, considering the amount of time we spent trying to get our amendments recommitted so there could be a proper debate on them. The Minister now requests that this side of the House agree with him to recommit the Bill in respect of this amendment even though all the amendment does is move a definition from the bottom to the top of the page under section 3.

The Minister has admitted that he does not know why this is being done. It is a definition of the Committee of Public Accounts and we are moving it from one place to another. A specific recommittal request was made and granted to do that. Will the Minister make further recommittal requests? Will there be recommittals every time it suits the Minister to have what he considers to be an appropriate measure of debate on his amendments? Will we not be allowed to have a debate on any of our amendments?

The Minister should have been present this morning to explain what he is doing now. He did not have the good grace to offer an apology for his absence.

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