Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I apologise to the Senator. We have a deadline to complete the legislation. Tens of thousands of people see this as important to their lives and it is important that we complete passage of the legislation prior to the Christmas break. Some of the amendments are technical while I was asked by Members to make others and address issues that were raised. Because of the lateness of completion of the debate on Committee Stage, it meant some amendments were not finalised by the Parliamentary Counsel's office until the last minute. I would have preferred to have gone through them myself a little earlier than I did but we have done our best to try to address any technical difficulties and deal with other issues we had to leave over until Report Stage. I hope Senators will appreciate that we have listened carefully to the debate in this House and that some amendments address issues they raised.