Michael Finucane (Fine Gael)

I spoke on Second Stage on this legislation and noted what an important piece of legislation it is. I also made the point that pollution preparedness is extremely important. As a commitment was given in May 2000 to purchase a towing vessel at the time, and the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Deputy Ahern, has since indicated his Department has entered discussions with the British authorities to see if a joint arrangement could be made, it would be important to have that resource available. As I said on Second Stage, the research vessel does not have towing capacity, although it can secure a particular vessel. I would like to think that a towing vessel would remain a priority. Given the unfortunate sequences of events that have occurred in other countries, it is the luck of God that we have avoided similar tragedies. I hope we always will avoid such tragedies. We are surrounded by sea and perhaps subject to risk in that regard.

Senator Kenneally indicated that the amendments were longer than the original Bill. What gave rise to that? When was the original Bill drafted? Was there an appropriate timeframe between the publication of the Bill and Committee Stage? All these amendments have suddenly appeared. The Minister of State refers to section 4, section 6 and so on. It sounds like gobbledegook. It would be far better if the amendments were minor in nature rather than being longer than the Bill's original provisions.