Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

The Financial Resolution on the Sea-Fisheries and Maritime Jurisdiction Bill 2005 is required; it must be brought in. We have given the legislation additional time. The reason we wanted to have it passed today was to allow the committee sit in January when the Minister is prepared to give a lot of time to deal with the Bill. He has already made provision for an extensive debate and detail on these issues. It is true that many issues have been highlighted that will amend the Bill but that is the purpose of Committee Stage. We will have plenty of time for an adequate debate on this issue in the second, third and fourth weeks of January.

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