Dáil debates

Wednesday, 4 April 2007

11:00 am

Photo of Brendan HowlinBrendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

First, I pay tribute to the Chair and those in the Bills Office who have worked under extraordinary pressure since last week, in particular yesterday, to deal with this matter. I welcome the recommittal of the untouched sections, but there was consensus at the end of our debate last week, when we dealt with 11 sections in as much detail as we could, that a good job was being done. There should be no guillotine on the remaining 41 sections. We will work diligently to make a better Bill if we are allowed and I ask, in that context, that there be no guillotine at 7 p.m. today.

This has been a very difficult situation, even for Opposition spokespersons. We now have two versions of the Bill, that as amended in committee before the House proper and that we are about to recommit. Most of us have done our work on one Bill, but we have a different Bill to cross-reference now. There are amendments which we saw for the first time yesterday. I have submitted amendments to the Minister's amendments and will have to find out how they fit into the discussion as we move through the Bill. There is enormous pressure on the Members of the House to do a proper job of parliamentary scrutiny and on the officers of the House to keep us in order in doing the job. I welcome the Tánaiste's reversal at the end of Committee Stage last week when, probably prompted by external pressures, he determined that we should have a proper Committee Stage debate on this Bill. Articles in today's national newspapers suggest that at least some sections of the proposal are unconstitutional. I wish to be assured that we can debate those matters so that we can be sure of the constitutional basis of our criminal law.

External comment that the Opposition is somehow responsible for not stopping this bulldozer is difficult to swallow when we oppose and vote against it but the guillotine is decided by the majority in this House which is determined that we do not have adequate debate on these serious and important provisions.

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.