Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

I wish to raise two matters, one of which relates to the point raised by Deputy Flanagan. My distributed schedule of business states: "Report Stage business planned for schedule next Dáil week, beginning 30 June — Intoxicating Liquor Bill." The Bill only originated in the House after Private Members' business last night. The Bill started life last night and it is suggested in the schedule of business that we take Report Stage next week. The normal unwritten protocol is that we would have a couple of weeks to prepare amendments. I hope the Taoiseach will be able to reassure the House that will apply here.

The second matter relates to the Offences Against the State (Amendment) Act 1998: Motion, that the House took in some tempestuous circumstances last week when the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform felt that he had other business to do outside of the House and sent in a Minister of State who has no delegated order to take this issue. It has, apparently, transpired that section 5 of that legislation was repealed by section 3 of the Criminal Justice Act 2007, yet we went ahead and reaffirmed it in a 50 minute debate last week. I ask the Taoiseach, I do not expect him to know off the top of his head, whether there is a question about the legal validity of the motion that was passed, since we could not reaffirm a section that is no longer in the legislation.

See this speech in context