David Norris (Independent)

I am glad that Senator Frances Fitzgerald has proposed to oppose the Order of Business. If we are serious about ethics we must make sure that everything is done in a proper, transparent, above board manner. The message of this manoeuvre is that we can bend the rules and fudge things. It is astonishing that this should happen in the very body that is supposed to supervise standards in public office.

There are two aspects to the Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill. There is the tidying-up operation, about which the Minister for Health and Children says she believes the position is safe but she has been advised to make sure, which is fine. One understands that. She has, however, added in co-location, an ideologically driven matter, which should be separate. I call on the Government to remove that section and let us get through the Bill.

The whole business is rather confused. The explanatory memorandum is not exactly a masterpiece of clarity. It would be useful to ask our excellent research unit in the Library to do what is done in some other Parliaments, prepare an agnostic view, without taking sides but explaining the technical points and the context of the legislation to make it easier for us to consume.

I am also confused about the water charges. I heard the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Deputy Dick Roche, say this was not a response to a European directive but he was equivocating. He was not being honest because he said it was decided by politicians which I take to mean that one of our Ministers was represented at the meeting where the decision was taken. That still leaves it coming from Europe but France got a derogation, so it is not universal in Europe. The problem raises a question of fairness, some schools have paid and some have been charged €20,000. We need prudent water management but what is the rush? The place is littered with European directives which we do not implement until the last minute. We have often been reprimanded for our tardiness so why move on this because it is beginning to look like a stealth tax?

Senator Déirdre De Búrca was very engaging when she said that people do not quite understand what is proposed. Why is the Government implementing something it does not understand? That seems absurd.