Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

I have, over the years, drafted and published more than 20 Private Members' Bills, four of which have been directly enacted into law, with appropriate Government amendments, and which have radically changed areas of law the Government failed to prioritise. Most of the others, within one to three years of publication, resulted in similar Government legislation being introduced and enacted. In recent years, the growing arrogance of those in the Government has resulted in the automatic blocking of almost all new legislation published by Opposition Deputies or Senators.

I have done some research on this. Between January 2002 and June 2007, 87 Private Members' Bills were published. These included 18 published by the Green Party, 23 by the Labour Party and 29 by the Fine Gael Party. Of the 87 published, only one passed beyond Second Stage, Deputy Rabbitte's Coroner's (Amendment) Bill 2005, comprising only three sections, which was enacted on 21 December 2005. It seems the Government is determined to prevent elected members of Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann from playing an innovative role as legislators. In so doing, it has undermined the credibility of both Houses of the Oireachtas and has made the enactment of legislation a monopoly Government power in circumstances in which the Government lacks the capacity within a reasonable timeframe to bring forward legislation in a broad range of areas.

The legislative programme published by the Government in April 2008 made no reference to the legislation the Minister promised last Thursday to bring forward some time in the future. Unless the Fine Gael Bill is accepted, there is no possibility that the Minister will enact legislation to confer extensive rights on victims of crime within a reasonable timeframe. However, rather than allowing the Bill to progress, the Minister has shown a preference to engage in gombeen politics. In a grotesque act of bad faith, he refuses to acknowledge that it reflects best legislative practice to facilitate recognition of the rights of the forgotten victims of crime. He has sought to contaminate the political landscape by attacking my personal good faith and reputation by accusing me of some form of plagiarism. In so doing, he has placed his own Department in the embarrassing position of having to reinvent the wheel every time it produces legislation to ensure no language is used which reflects legislation operational in other countries for fear of a similar charge being levelled against him or his officials.

As he has done today, the Minister sat in this House last Thursday smiling and sneering as if he had achieved some sort of political coup. The truth is he has exhibited the intellectual capacity for which Homer Simpson has become famous. It is my hope, although I know it is in vain, that the Minister's colleagues in Government will reconsider the approach he proposes to take to this Bill by tomorrow night and that Second Stage will be agreed. The Government expects Fine Gael bipartisanship in helping it resolve the difficulties created by its abysmal failure properly to explain and campaign for the Lisbon treaty. The Government should not take Fine Gael for granted. While we fully support the Lisbon treaty, we will not be railroaded into a bipartisanship commitment once again to stand alongside an arrogant, out of touch and incompetent Government. In the interests of victims of crime, an issue of major public concern, the Government should apply a bipartisan approach to the enactment of this Bill and stop playing foolish, dishonest and irrelevant party political games.

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