Brendan Ryan (Labour)

The front page of this Bill is tempting satire. At the top of page five it states "Interpretation Bill 2000". Section 1(1) states: "This Act may be cited as the Interpretation Act 2003" and section 1(2) states: "This Act comes into operation on 1 January 2004". The Minister is now telling us it will come into operation some time in 2006. The Bill, as amended, is unlikely to pass through the Dáil before the summer recess although the Minister of State is probably the best authority on that. It has been sitting around for long enough. Who are the interested parties that need a delay of six months?

A delay of six months is a classic commentary on the manner in which we conduct the business of public administration. There is a resistance to timetables that are demanding in any way. Legislation that requires ministerial approval never states by when the Minister must make a decision. Most difficult decisions are never taken. Local authorities awaiting ministerial approval must wait while the matter is forever under consideration.

I need to be convinced of a plausible reason for this amendment unless the Government is intending to delay matters yet again. If we cannot complete the legislation this week the Dáil will return sometime after the summer recess, presumably between the end of September and the middle of October. This legislation will not take the concentrated effort of all of the powers of Government as it has been stewed over for the best part of five years. Why not specify a fixed date for implementation of, say, 1 January 2006 instead of eternally postponing it?

The only reason I can think of is that the Government plans to sit on this for another six or eight months and it does not want to have to make an amendment to it at that stage, which would result in the Bill coming back to the Seanad. I am not quite sure what happens next. If a Dáil Bill is referred to the Seanad, is amended in the Seanad, goes to the Dáil and gets amended again, does it come back to the Seanad? I am not sure.

This is another excuse to temporise. The Bill sat on the Order Paper for an unacceptably long period of time. I fear this amendment, without a time constraint that cannot be extended at the Government's convenience, will mean it will sit on the Order Paper of the other House for yet another unacceptably long period of time. I am not in the least impressed with the amendment.