Paschal Donohoe (Fine Gael)

Although I welcome some of the points being made in the interruptions, I will go on. I tried to take some time, as did everyone else, to read the Bill, but I did not have enough time so I put more attention into the explanatory memorandum. This Bill is designed to correct another law that has been in existence for 46 years. Correction of the legislation has suddenly become urgent, apparently, but the advice that necessitated this has not been made available to people on this side of the House. If we consider the bodies that will be affected by this change and their importance to Irish life, to patients and to the people who work within them, we must agree it is vital that people on this side of the House demand to see the advice available to the Minister.

We must demand time to consult people outside the Houses to understand their views so that we can better do our job and articulate a range of views on this legislation. We have not had the time nor the capacity to do this. I agree with the point made by Senator Alex White earlier. It is not a matter of getting additional speaking time; it is about having the time and ability to prepare so that we may make good use of that speaking time. That has been denied to us up to this point.

I have no qualms about raising the issue of co-location as every speaker on the Government side has already mentioned it. During the hurly burly of the general election——