Brendan Ryan (Labour)

I support my colleagues. As the spouse of a psychiatrist, from nothing other than listening I am aware of how difficult it is to make a diagnosis in the area of psychiatric illness. The suggestion that immigration officers at our ports would suddenly discover a competence that professional psychiatrists do not have to diagnose psychiatric illness is a commentary on the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and on the Government. This Bill gets worse as it proceeds, as often happens when a Government introduces legislation hastily, discovers what a mess it has made and tries to amend it equally hastily. The Bill cries out for a proper hearing by an Oireachtas committee which would listen to the views of everybody. Instead we are getting hasty legislation written by a Department, which as I have said often in this House believes it should not be subject to the nuisance of parliamentary scrutiny and that its job is far too important to be under the gaze of two Houses of the Oireachtas, which it believes do not understand the importance of the Department's job. We will oppose the Order of Business.

No. 6 is an earlier signature motion for the Civil Registration Bill. Is this an error? I have never seen an earlier signature motion on the Order Paper for a Bill that was on Second Stage.