Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want to speak on this because it was a huge bone of contention throughout the debates and, in fairness to the Minister of State, he has removed the issue as a problem, certainly in my reading of it and in other people's reading of it. The requirements are there but the subsection being inserted, subsection (4), changes it significantly and I hope any court in the future, when interpreting this legislation, would see the changes that were made and the intentions behind them. If we were dealing with Irish Water now, we would be calling this a U-turn or a climbdown, but what has actually happened is that there has been a proper debate. We have teased things through, as have the Minister and the people who are interested in the legislation, and it shows how a parliament should be working. If every Minister dealt with legislation the way the Minister of State, Deputy Harris, has done so, we would not have the problems we see every day in the Dáil because they are ramming everything through. They are not listening to people, and we saw that with Irish Water yesterday. The opposite has happened here and there has been huge engagement with it. That is without prejudice to what the Dáil might say, what changes it might make to it and what concerns it may have. As far as I am concerned, there has been a full and proper debate on this legislation which has resulted in changes. There is this old bone of contention, namely that we did not actually make the amendments that are changing the legislation, but the Minister of State has brought in these amendments directly as a result of debate that has taken place here. He has listened to the concerns, and I welcome that and the changes that have been made. I welcome this new legislation and certainly will not be holding up its passage in the Seanad.