Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

Similarly, we have no difficulty with this Bill being taken today. However, it is astonishing that the Minister or some senior official forgot to make provision for a licensing arrangement for the national conference centre, which would mean it could not hold late night functions and so forth. I believe we are owed an explanation given that a vast amount of justice and finance legislation has been before the House over the past two years. The Minister was busy dealing with blasphemy and other issues, so I am amazed that nobody brought it to his attention that our shiny beautiful new conference centre did not have a licence. What way is that to run a business economy?

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