Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)

The Ceann Comhairle may be able to answer my question. I sat through most of Committee Stage of the Garda Síochána Bill. This was not raised on Committee Stage so why have we not recommitted it as we recommitted the Minister's other technical amendment?

Whether I table 80 or 100 amendments and present them today, that is the deadline we enjoy. The Minister has an entire staff and Department as well as the Ceann Comhairle's office and the General Office to trawl through amendments we put, the majority of which are ruled out of order. It is difficult to anticipate and pre-empt what new sections the Minister will introduce into the Bill, as he has done in every Bill he put before the House. I might have been late in tabling these amendments but I reached the deadline in the Standing Orders.

That is not the point. The Minister had the opportunity over two years to get this right but he failed to do so. He should have taken the additional time we called for to get the amendments right, and to get consensus on this side of the House on some of them which are sensible and I congratulate him on them. However, we will not have time to discuss them properly and perhaps tidy them up and improve them.

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