Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It has a lot to do with the amendment. Normally the same Minister takes a Bill through from beginning to end for continuity's sake, unless there is some very grave and serious reason, which does not appear to be the case today because I saw the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Alan Kelly, in the House. Only in extreme situations would one ask another Minister to take either Committee Stage or Report Stage on one's behalf. It was the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Ann Phelan, who took the farcical Committee Stage of this Bill. I have sympathy for her because she was sent in with no Government amendments and an announcement that we would skip Committee Stage and go straight on to Report Stage with amendments. That was sharp practice and it was unfair that she was asked to do that. It was shameful.

If the Government knew amendments were coming, why did it not tell the committee it had amendments coming in and ask to defer the date for Committee Stage, as the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Simon Coveney, did on the Animal Health and Welfare Act because he rightly wanted to bring in his amendments on Committee Stage. We agreed to do that and I have no doubt that Deputy Stanley would have agreed to deferring the Committee Stage of this Bill until this week in order that he would have the full suite of amendments.

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