Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for stepping out during the debate but the national broadcaster is interested in this Bill and I had to nip out to be interviewed on it. I welcome the fact that the Government is not opposing this Bill. The Minister of State said that the Department is carrying out a review of safety at funfairs which is expected to be finalised and a report produced within the next few months, which is very welcome. This Bill is shining a spotlight on the fact that there are no regulations governing situations where a person is injured. I have no doubt that we can tease out some of the questions posed by the Minister of State earlier when the Bill goes before the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Business, Enterprise and Innovation for detailed scrutiny. I am chairman of that committee and look forward to this Bill coming before us. We will deal with it in a timely manner.

The Minister of State made reference in his closing statement to the broadness of what is covered. A funfair is a place of entertainment where fairground equipment is used. That can cover an awful lot of items and is one of the definitions in the Bill. As I said earlier, fairground equipment includes any fairground ride or similar equipment which is designated to be in motion for entertainment purposes. The Bill does not refer to things like bouncy castles, which are hugely popular. Indeed, I know of a young child who fell off a bouncy castle last week and broke his wrist in two places. Perhaps that is what the Minister of State means when he says that the departmental review will include all kinds of entertainment items, which is very welcome. As I have already said, what we are doing here today is shining a spotlight on an anomaly in the 2005 Bill and as legislators, that is what we are expected to do. The Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government said that one of the issues being looked at in the review is that the current rules do not assign responsibility to a specific body to investigate accidents at funfairs. This Bill is quite narrow in its scope but that was deliberate on the part of Deputy Niall Collins. He is seeking to amend the current Bill whereas the Government is looking at overhauling the entire system.

It is important that we are having this conversation and the sooner this legislation is enacted, the better because nobody wants to see anybody being hurt. The operation of funfairs is a tough business. Operators are very dependent on the weather and unfortunately we have not had a good summer so far. They are very dependent on weather and on trends and the last thing funfair operators want to see is people getting hurt. They do not want that experience. Funfair operators also provide employment for college students at weekends and during the summer months.

Unfortunately, I did not hear Deputy Louise O'Reilly's contribution but I understand there is broad support for this Bill across the House. I welcome the fact that the Government is supporting it and look forward to scrutinising it in detail at the aforementioned Oireachtas committee, which will invite contributions from all relevant stakeholders. I am sure we will improve the Bill, if necessary.

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