Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State and his officials for their engagement on this. Of course there is nobody here to see it, but it is one example of when we work together we work very well and can get stuff done. I do not have any amendments to this section. Amendments Nos. 2 and 3 are grouped. They are not massively dissimilar. That does not mean I oppose the Minister of State's amendment; rather, I feel Deputy Shanahan's amendment is stronger. I am minded to support it and abstain on the Minister of State's amendment. It is not my intention to oppose it.

I would be interested in hearing from the Minister of State why it is the case that what is essentially the stronger amendment of the two is the one that is not accepted by him. We all are agreed on the need for review. The question is what we will review, for how long and who is going to do it. I ask the Minister of State to comment on the section in Deputy Shanahan's amendment which would compel the Minister of State or the Tánaiste, as the senior Minister, to act on any review or report with amendments to the legislation. I need to know why the Minister of State would not support Deputy Shanahan's amendment. The two amendments seem broadly similar.

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