Jim Higgins (Fine Gael)

I am surprised that ordinary elected Members of either of the Government parties would countenance supporting the measure before the House. Not alone are the rights of ordinary citizens, organisations and the media being trampled on and interfered with, but the rights of ordinary Members of the Houses of the Oireachtas are also being trammelled and trampled upon. If ever there was an opportunity for ordinary Senators and backbench Deputies to take a stand – they have recently done so forcefully on issues such as the dual mandate and achieved concessions – and to indicate that they are not prepared to act as puppets or pawns and not to be dictated to by their colleagues in Cabinet, then surely this is the opportunity. Judging by the manner in which the issue has been dealt with thus far in the House, people are not prepared to take a stand. They should do so because the Bill is wrong and it is a bad day's work.

The utter contempt being shown for people's intelligence by attempting to portray the measure as being "in the public interest" is matched only by the manner in which the Bill has been brought before the Seanad today. As has been said repeatedly on the Order of Business, the Cabinet took a decision to go ahead and publish the Bill at last Tuesday's meeting, yet it was not published immediately or put into the possession of Members or the public. It was not published until Friday when neither the Dáil nor Seanad was sitting. Those of us who reside outside Dublin did not receive our copy of the Bill until yesterday and some on this side have still not received a copy. Yet the Second Stage debate is listed for this afternoon, a mere 24 hours after most people received the Bill in the post.

Irrespective of how the Leader is trying to defend what is happening, this ramrodding of legislation is wrong. It shows complete contempt for Parliament. Legislation should be rushed through Parliament only if there is an imminent threat to the security of the State and then only where there is clear and overwhelming support from all sides of the House.

When I was Government Chief Whip we had an agreement in relation to legislation coming before the Dáil that a minimum of two weeks should expire before the Bill would be taken at Second Stage. A further gap of two weeks would expire after the passing of Second Stage before the matter went to Committee Stage. The same agreement pertained when I was Opposition Chief Whip. That was a protocol that was breached only in the rarest of circumstances. In my time in the Dáil I can only remember two or three occasions when we agreed among ourselves – and there was agreement – to rush legislation through. One was the Bill to regularise, regulate and save Larry Goodman's empire, the beef industry and our beef exports.