Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is now 18 months since Second Stage of the Legal Services Regulation Bill. I am sure the Tánaiste will agree that this is a hugely important Bill in terms of the administration of law in this State and its impact on many people, particularly in respect of cost. We were supposed to take Committee Stage next Wednesday. The Opposition worked extremely hard this week to get our amendments in for the deadline of 11 a.m. today but we now learn that the Government is pushing that back by a week. We will have one and a half hours to discuss this Bill on Committee Stage and then we are into the summer recess and the autumn. Does the Tánaiste agree that this is absolutely outrageous at this stage? We have been waiting 18 months for this Bill to get to Committee Stage and it is now put back by another three months and one and a half hours is offered for debate. What was all the work we put into amendments this week for?

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