John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

I will reply to the contributions of the Deputies opposite, beginning with Deputy Phil Hogan who seems to be exercised about the stability of the Government. He is concerned about the trust that exists between the Government parties. I would have thought he would have welcomed destabilisation in Government but I can tell him that we have a renewed programme for Government, which will go through. As far as I am concerned, as Minister my job is to deliver on the renewed programme for Government and I intend to do that in a timely fashion. The Deputy is correct to state we have a legislative programme in the run up to the summer months, including the Wildlife (Amendment) Bill 2010, the Dog Breeding Establishments Bill 2009, the Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2009 and the local government (Dublin mayor and regional authority) Bill. All of these will go through. There is also the climate change Bill.

I do not understand Deputy Tuffy's line of argument. She stated I would deprive myself of power to regulate but it does not apply because what this does is ensure that this activity will not take place. Deputy Tuffy's argument does not apply. I would have thought that was absolutely clear. She also spoke about different points of view and democracy. Opinion poll after opinion poll has shown that the majority of people do not want this type of activity to continue. Most people find it distasteful to see an animal in distress, particularly a domesticated animal.

Social issues arise, and Deputy Tuffy's party is aware of this. Divorce was a very divisive issue but the Labour Party saw fit to push it through. It had my support in the House because I thought it was a necessary measure. I took the view that it was an extremely important issue and set aside party politics. However, the Labour Party does not see fit to do so now because it sees an opportunity. What it is doing this evening is extremely opportunistic and cynical. Individuals in the Labour Party have clearly and unequivocally stated they oppose bloodsports. It was encouraging to see that Deputy Broughan did not turn up for the vote on Second Stage. I know of his personal conviction. We shall see whether he turns up later but I doubt it. I applaud that.

Deputy Tuffy questioned why we are spending time on this. This afternoon, her party and Fine Gael objected to the guillotining of this legislation. As far as we are concerned, this Bill consists of a number of paragraphs and we should not waste valuable Dáil time.

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