Paudie Coffey (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government back to the House. Many of these amendments from the Dáil were debated at length in this House. If the Minister and some Members from the Government side had taken on or resubmitted some of the Seanad Opposition amendments, they would have saved themselves and the Government a great deal of the trouble and grief over the past several weeks. While the Minister might have escaped accepting amendments in the Seanad he was eventually hunted down and forced by a pack of Fianna Fáil backbenchers to table amendments to the Bill as initiated in the Seanad.

I presume I will have an opportunity later to speak to some of the amendments.