Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

We must use this debate to burst the myth being peddled by the Government that we have to start the occupied territories Bill from scratch. This is a tactic being used by Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Independents to avoid doing something that, before the recent general election, they all indicated they would do. Senator Frances Black's occupied territories Bill needs some amendment. Nobody disputes that. Senator Black does not dispute it. That can be done via amendment on Committee and Report Stages. Bills are amended every single day in this House. We added multiple entirely new sections to the planning Bill in the previous Dáil. Three years ago, we dealt with more than 1,000 amendments to the Birth Information and Tracing Act.

However, the Ministers of this Government have made a choice and that is not to pass any occupied territories Bill. Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Independents have made a clear choice, and it is the exact opposite choice to what they told people in the general election. They do not want to admit this publicly, so they are bringing forward the smokescreen that they must start again with the Bill. People see through that in the same way they saw through the stroke on Opposition speaking time. They see the clear U-turn it represents. Ministers should drop the smokescreen and pass the Bill.

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