Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)

The amendment provides that legislation or statutory instruments would have to be endorsed within three months by the House or it would fall. A list of the relevant legislation has not been provided and this debacle has been presented to us in this legislation. Most Bills, which refer to a range of legislation and statutory instruments, have Schedules attached but that is not the case with this legislation. It is that undemocratic. It will stand to us in the Opposition that we tried to ensure the public was aware of what was being done.

I do not say we would have opposed all the legislation passed previously or that we disagree with retrospectively endorsing it because a mistake was made but that opportunity is not being provided to us because a number of Departments have been unable to provide us with the necessary information to properly scrutinise the Bill. The Minister of State and others have stated how important it is for Members to scrutinise European legislation. We cannot even scrutinise legislation introduced in the House, never mind the European Union, because we have not been supplied with the relevant data. We do not know what will be the full effect of this legislation. That is how disgraceful and undemocratic is this legislation. It is a further disgrace that the debate is being guillotined. The public will understand our position that at the very least we should have had a proper debate and sufficient time to discuss the full impact of the legislation.

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