Feargal Quinn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I understood there was a vote. Certainly some voices said "No". It was not unanimous. This issue deserves a debate. Senator Mooney described it well when he said we must not ignore the fact that Palestine was dropping rockets into residential areas in Israel over and over again, and Israel retaliated in the end. Let us just make sure there is balance in that debate.

It is 450 days since President Higgins signed the Construction Contracts Act 2013 to enable it to become law. However, the Act has not yet been enforced. Not a day goes by when sub-contractors do not ask what is delaying this Act. I can understand why a Government moves slowly on occasion but if this House initiates legislation that is subsequently passed by both Houses, why has nothing happened? This week, the Department in charge of making sure the Act was enabled and put into operation changed from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, under a new Minister who has no experience of the last 450 days of whatever has been happening. It looks as though nothing has been done to make this happen. Something should happen immediately.

From this Sunday we will lose one hour of daylight every day because we will have to change our clocks again. I have been pursuing this issue for many years but the Government should grab hold of it because it makes sense for us to join central European time and keep that extra hour all year round rather than just the summer months.