Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I do not expect that of all the items on the Order of Business there will be agreement on this one and for very good reason, beyond the usual reason of just having a vote for the sake of having one. In April the Chief Whip told the House that the Government would publish 26 Bills of which 17 were published leaving nine unpublished, including the employment agencies regulation Bill, the industrial relations (amendment) Bill, the environment (miscellaneous provisions) Bill, the environment (liability) Bill, direct debit mandates Bill, Child Care Bill, criminal justice (forensic sampling and evidence) Bill, criminal justice (money laundering) Bill and so on. Nine Bills were not published. The House is never given an explanation why these Bills are put on a list for publication during the session and then almost half of them are not published.

As was pointed out here yesterday by both Deputy Charles Flanagan and Deputy Shatter, we all have to treat seriously the issue of serious crime. We have a duty, while we are Members of this House, to debate and tease out the implications of the amendments to Bills in a proper, thorough and fitting fashion. I am sure that as the Deputy Leader of the Government, the Tánaiste does not want to happen, a situation, as Deputy Flanagan and Deputy Shatter pointed out could well arise here, in which the Government has obviously not done its legislative duty in a proper fashion. The House is still in session and we should sit next week to tease out the Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill in a more thorough and fitting fashion.

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