Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I was just trying to reply to some of the points raised.

The second point I wish to make is that the advice of the Parliamentary Counsel and the legal advice - I will not repeat the reasons I gave yesterday - is that there is no requirement to extend the Title of the Bill. I understand, as Senator David Norris said, that the amendment is a vehicle to allow a wider discussion on the Bill. Members will appreciate that I have nothing to do with the rulings, but technically and legally the advice of the Parliamentary Counsel is that there is no requirement to extend the Title of the Bill. I accept that advice and that is all I can say on the matter.

I remind Members that there will be a social welfare Bill in the spring in which pension issues will be addressed. In the debate in the Dáil we had time to deal with these matters, even though we lost a good deal of time in the discussion, rather like what happened this morning when about an hour was lost in the debate in the Seanad. I will bring forward proposals to deal with requests made by the various organisations which have an interest in defined benefit schemes. They will be reflected in the social welfare Bill to be brought forward in the spring.