Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

This error was picked up when they were preparing anti-grooming legislation. The Labour Party leader responsibly alerted me to this in the Dáil last Thursday. I said I would deal with it as soon as I possibly could. On Friday, he published a Bill and informed me he was glad I was making time available to deal with the matter as one of urgency in the Dáil. At that stage, I took it as the green light to get on with it. Last Friday, the Fine Gael Party published a Bill aimed at preventing grooming. It was a modest Bill with which I did not disagree. I did not want parallel debates in the Dáil and I put legislation before the Dáil which took the spirit of the Labour Party amendment, which required urgent action to change the particular offence, and the substance of the Fine Gael Party's legislation. The guillotine was not necessary in the Dáil last night because the debate concluded within the time allotted to it. I hope the same will happen in the Seanad. There was all-party agreement that this was a good and requisite measure. The amendments tabled on it were carefully considered. I look forward to the debate in this House and dealing with the amendments.