David Norris (Independent)

I will conclude because Senator Bacik and I have teased out the issue. Our difficulty is that while we welcome the implementation plan, this is all theory unless we put something into action. However, the Minister of State appeared to suggest that when it went to the Dáil, there would be a further legislative development which had not been considered at that point by this House. That is inappropriate and nothing the Minister of State has said so far has convinced me otherwise.

When will the Bill go to the Dáil? I presume it is not a matter that can be left forever because once this Bill passes in the Seanad in the next week or so, it will then go to the Dáil. The Minister of State is anticipating it being law by Christmas so it might very well go to the Lower House very rapidly. I want to know why we are not given the opportunity to scrutinise something that will apparently be scrutinised as part of the Bill in the Dáil.

I have been, as Senator Coffey very kindly pointed out, long enough in this House to know the way legislation works. If it was just a question of a completely separate set of regulations, it would not be an issue because provisions are frequently made for regulations to be determined afterwards by the Minister. This seems to be something more than that because the Dáil is being given the opportunity to consider it but we are being deprived of that opportunity. Perhaps as a sop, we may get an opportunity to put the Bill through on the nod, as amended by the Dáil, but that is not what this House was intended to do. I regret to have to say this to the Minister of State because I know he intends the best. We want to support him in this, particularly in dealing with the situation of homelessness.