Michael McCarthy (Labour)

My contribution will be brief, given the amount of time that has been spent on this Bill. I shall just make a few points about the 11th hour Government amendments. I want to put on the record of the House the fact I am not convinced of the necessity to abolish Bantry Bay Harbour Commissioners. The ministerial amendments do not remove the power to abolish Bantry Bay Harbour Commissioners, let us be quite clear about that. They merely require that there be a public consultation process. That is to be welcomed because it is a direct result of the debate we have had in this House on other sections of this Bill, but it does not remove the power to abolish Bantry Bay Harbour Commissioners. The only requirements are the consultation process, newspaper notice and considerations. I am not being ungrateful and recognise that this is part of the Bill. However, after considering all these submissions and the newspaper reports as well as the public consideration, the Minister can still abolish the commissioners. That power is still in this Bill and I will be pushing my amendments to that effect for the reasons I have outlined.