Paddy Burke (Fine Gael)

My initial response is far be it for me to go against the advice of the Attorney General. The Finance Bill has to come before the Seanad and if amendments to it would pose a charge on the Exchequer, they would be ruled out of order, but the amendments to this Bill have not been ruled out of order. Therefore, I find the Minister's response peculiar. The Attorney General's advice appeared to suggest the amendments I tabled should have been ruled out of order, but they were not. The Minister has the Attorney General's advice in regard to what I propose. As Senator Cummins said, we had a debate in this House on the Defence Forces before our troops were sent to Chad and a number of important matters in regard to the mission were raised, which the Government took into account at that time. I would like to hear the comments of other Senators on this amendment before I might put the question.