David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The first amendment is a simple one with which we are all familiar - "may" and "shall". We have been at this hammer and tongs for the 30 years or so that I have been in this House. "May" is very weak and "shall" actually instructs the Minister to do something. Lines 37 and 38 of the Bill are indeed, as Senator Barrett as said, extraordinarily weak. Let us analyse them for a moment. "The Minister may" - no instruction, he may, if he feels like it, if it is a sunny morning, if his digestion is in good order, well, he just may do this. "With the consent of the owner" - this is a lovely one - somebody who swipes trees down and then we have to ask his permission to put them back. That is fatuous in the extreme. It is nonsense, whoever drafted it. Furthermore, the replanting can be done on "other land owned by the owner". What are we at here? He could destroy a beech tree in an avenue up to the remains of a great house or such like and then he could stick a fir tree up the back side of a mountain ten miles away where he also owns property. That is what is in the Bill. It is a farce.
I am challenging the Minister to accept this amendment, and to demonstrate that he also accepts the constitutional position of Seanad Éireann to advise, guide and amend. This phraseology here, in page 27 of the Bill, is a nonsense, and gives carte blancheto any pirate who wants to desecrate the landscape. To recap, the Minister "may", if he feels like it. He must then of course seek the consent of the owner, who may be a complete crook, and if he manages to surmount these two obstacles, the owner then can plant a cherry tree in the garden of a bungalow somewhere. It is nonsense. The Minister knows it is nonsense as do his advisors. The whole House knows it. The only reason it would not be accepted would be because - oh, dear - it would be such a bother to take the Bill back to the Dáil.
Let us have a bit of democracy. I would be interested to see if the Minister of State will accept this amendment and I very much hope that he does. So what if he causes a bit of bother among his colleagues? They will only respect him for it. The Minister of State is shaking his head sadly. He does not think that his colleagues will respect him for it, but some of them will, and this House would appreciate a bit of respect being shown to it by a Government that tried to get rid of it.