Brendan Ryan (Labour)

Dealing with Committee or Report Stages of a Bill can be either one of the most worthwhile parts of a Member's time or among the most frustrating. The most frustrating is when one gets nonsense being parroted by Ministers who obviously refuse to engage with the issue. Harassment is defined as multiple activities. The section of the Post Office (Amendment) Act 1951 referred to deals with individual activities. Harassment does not cover what we are talking about. It is appalling to say that only if one receives multiple text messages is there any legislative protection. If somebody telephones me to say my mother is dead, that is an offence under the legislation and correctly so, but if somebody sends me a text message to say my mother is dead, apparently that is a joke, or it is not sufficiently significant that the Government would even temporarily accept the amendment. It could accept it. It is only a redefinition of telephone. I have seen legislation come through the House which defined a crossbow as a firearm for the purposes of legislation.

Please do not tell me about the scope of Bills and so on. The Cathaoirleach has accepted this amendment as coming within the scope of the Bill. What the Attorney General is saying is that he knows better than the Cathaoirleach of Seanad Éireann. If I have to choose between the Attorney General and the Cathaoirleach, I know whom I would choose——