Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to have the opportunity to respond on this important Bill. I thank Deputies for their consideration of the Maritime Jurisdiction Bill and for their contributions to this Second Stage debate. As the Minister of State, Deputy Brophy, indicated in his opening statement, this Bill will update and clarify the law relating to the maritime jurisdiction of the State in a single, accessible, stand-alone enactment. It describes the different maritime zones and the national jurisdiction recognised by international law. It sets out the State's sovereign and jurisdictional rights in each of those zones and confers powers on the Government to delineate the zones in domestic law. As Deputy Brophy pointed out, how the State then decides to exercise those jurisdictional rights is left to separate legislation and is beyond the scope of this Bill.

I wish to address a number of the points made by Deputies during the debate. Today a number of Deputies, including Deputies Connolly, Mattie McGrath and Mac Lochlainn raised concerns about the lack of pre-legislative scrutiny of this Bill. I am informed that pre-legislative scrutiny of this Bill was waived by the relevant Oireachtas committee, the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence. That was a decision of the committee, which is its right. Oireachtas committees are entitled to make such decisions but the Government did not ask for scrutiny to be waived. It was not a request of the Government but a decision of an Oireachtas committee. Members of the committee can answer as to why they felt it was opportune to do so but-----

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