Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)

I never ask anything except on promised legislation. There are very few debates in which one on the backbenches of the House can participate, but this is one of them. There is a piece of promised legislation into which the Minister for Transport can get his teeth and it has been promised for a very long time. He has shown habitual reluctance to answer parliamentary questions. One of the Bills is to consolidate and update merchant shipping provisions since 1894. Surely that has been on the promised list for a very long time, but if it has not, it should have been. Is there any intention to bring forward this Bill because the status of the Bill is that it is not possible to indicate at this stage when publication is expected? That is the same as all promised legislation. I would like to encourage a little rapidity there.

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