Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael)

I welcome the legislation which will help us honour our commitments to the EU and the UN. This is an important Bill and my party fully supports it. However, I must refer again to the practice of introducing important amendments on Report Stage. It was clearly evident during the debate that I was unable to discuss matters I wished to tease out. Not allowing Members to tease out amendments such as those tabled this morning is bad practice, particularly as we are only allowed to speak once. If the Minister of State had wanted to introduce special criminal courts — something which had been envisaged for some time — why could the amendments not have been tabled on Committee Stage in order that Members could have debated and, perhaps, improved them? The practice to which I refer, which is creeping in on a regular basis, must be discontinued. Through the Minister of State, I ask that this practice be discontinued and that we be allowed to debate legislation in the manner the public envisages we do, by teasing out issues rather than putting them in at the last minute on Report Stage. I commend the Bill as it was introduced and the officials, while asking that consideration be given to ensuring that nothing of this nature occurs again on Report Stage when amendments are submitted.