Feargal Quinn (Independent)

I agree 100% with what Senator Fitzgerald has just said about rushed legislation. I am amazed that we are being treated in this manner with the Intoxicating Liquor Bill. I remind the Leader, with a compliment to him, of an incident that took place seven or eight years ago on exactly the same day — almost the last day of term — when the Dáil had finished and we were discussing the Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2000, which provided that no public opinion polls were to be published in the week before an election. The Bill had gone through the Dáil and came to the Seanad for its final day of deliberations. Senator Ross pointed out that this was disastrous legislation, not because it was being rushed through but because he had seen a flaw in it, which was that it would allow all the public opinion polls that had not been published in the previous week to be published at midnight on the day of the election. Senator Cassidy, as Leader, agreed with Senator Ross and asked for the Bill to be withdrawn. This was done after the Dáil had finished its deliberations on the Bill and after it had finished sitting. That is the purpose of having a second Chamber. It is the reason we are here.