Kathleen O'Meara (Labour)

I agree with Senator O'Toole on the issue of the Immigration Bill. It is recognised that this House does its best to co-operate with Departments, but we do not like to be misused. We appreciate that the Leader takes this same view and does not allow the House to be misused. We need to revisit the situation with regard to the Bill. We agreed to debate it tomorrow in order to facilitate what we were told was an urgent situation. However, it no longer appears to be urgent. Media reports have led me to understand that the Minister has listened to and heard the difficulties of the Opposition with the speed the Bill was being rushed through the Houses. Does this not apply equally to the Seanad?

I suggest we just take Second Stage tomorrow. We propose to bring forward a number of amendments. As a minimum, I ask the Department to indicate through the Leader whether it is open to amendments. In particular, if amendments are taken on board in the Dáil, the legislation should return to the Seanad. The Department should not take the view that any amendments made by the second Chamber should not be entertained because this would delay the progress of the Bill. I ask the Leader to transmit this message to the Department. If the urgency has gone, there is no need to take all Stages of the Bill tomorrow. As we have put the matter in our diary, we could start the process tomorrow with Second Stage and complete it next week.

Committees were particularly busy yesterday. It was a hectic day as recorded by RTE. A particularly useful debate took place at the Joint Committee on Communications, Marine and Natural Resources on the issue of phone charges, particularly the increase in fixed telephone line rental charges which are causing difficulty for consumers and all players in the market. Will the Leader consider allowing the House to debate the issue? Extensive and useful information, much of it new, was brought before the committee yesterday. It would be useful to Members of this House to examine and debate that information and to hear the Minister's plans on the matter with regard to consumers and their protection.