Ivana Bacik (Independent)

I ask that the Order of Business be amended to allow a debate on No. 12. It is time, in this the second day of a two-day sitting, that we debated some legislation. There is all party consensus on this Bill. My colleague in the other House, Deputy Liz McManus, pointed out yesterday that a Joint Committee on Climate Change and Energy Security report sets out a text for a climate change Bill. Deputy McManus proposes to put that legislation before the Dáil. There is cross-party agreement on the need for binding commitments in legislation on this and successive Governments to reduce carbon emissions year on year. We are obliged at international level to sign up to this type of binding commitment. I do not understand the reason we cannot have such a debate today or the reason we cannot reach some consensus on this matter at a time when the Government is seeking agreement from the Opposition on all manner of other issues on which it would be most inappropriate for us to agree. The climate protection legislation is something on which we all agree. Let us have that debate today.

I also call for a debate on two other issues on which there is agreement. I ask that the Leader inform the House when the legislation to prohibit female genital mutilation will come to the House. Colleagues will recall that I had a Bill before this House on behalf of the Labour Party which was accepted in principle by the Minister and in respect of which she promised legislation would be brought before us. I note it is included in the priority list of the legislative programme. When will that debate take place? When is the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010, on which there was almost unanimous agreement in this House when the legislation was debated in June and July, likely to be in force? I have been approached in this regard by numerous people who are engaged and waiting to set a date for their nuptials.