Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

To be constructive and enable business to proceed while taking account of the point made by Deputies Reilly and O'Sullivan, the issue is that Bills are published with Long Titles that are supposed to detail the principle or purpose behind them. Instead of doing this, however, it has become the practice of Government to detail, as has been done here, references to particular Acts so as to obscure for the general public the true intention of proposals published and facilitate Governments engaging in public relations campaigns.

While I understand the Committee on Procedure and Privileges cannot address the problem before us, we should refer to the committee a request that it introduce a new rule to require Governments, when publishing Bills, to expressly detail what is the principle of the Bill in straightforward, simple English terminology, rather than simply reciting the details of existing statutory measures they propose to amend. An important principle is at stake here.

I accept the Ceann Comhairle dealt with this in good faith and I would not impugn in any way the ruling in that context. The Government, in the manner in which it has dealt with this Bill, and the Long Title it has put in it, has put him in an impossible and unfair position whereby he must make decisions of a nature the Government lacks the courage to make. It tries to make the Bill appear to be something it is not.

The intent of the Bill appears to be to deprive a whole section of the community of the right to a medical card, a right currently vested in them. The Government wants to confuse the issue and make it look more complex. The Committee on Procedure and Privileges should expressly require Governments or Oppositions who publish legislation to detail, in the Long Title, in simplistic terms, the intent and principle of the Bills coming before the House. This would ensure the Ceann Comhairle would not be placed in a similar position in future.

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