Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Ba mhaith liom leasú ar Riar na hOibre a mholadh ar maidin. I call for an amendment to the Order of Business as I am extremely unhappy at the way in which the Petroleum (Exploration and Extraction) Safety (Amendment) Bill 2015 is being handled in this House. It was added to the agenda on Tuesday and was not signalled to us last week. The Bill was not available until 10 a.m. I acknowledge that we got a note or a memorandum from officials but that is not sufficient for us to scrutinise legislation properly. The directive is a 40 page document, published on 12 June 2013. The sudden rush to push the legislation through is unacceptable. We do our best and we are not perfect, but to ask us to scrutinise the legislation, to match it against the directive and debate it today on Second Stage is unacceptable and makes a mockery of the House. I call on the Leader to amend the Order of Business so that at the very least we have the weekend to study it. While the Bill may well be benign and may be badly needed, as legislators we cannot stand over it and we should not be asked to do so. I propose it be deferred at least until next week so we can give it proper and due consideration and do our job properly.

There are people who would be concerned. We have had issues around the petroleum industry and the way Governments have handled petroleum legislation in the past. There are people who may think there is a sleight of hand here, that an attempt is being made to have legislation rushed through the Houses. I certainly would not want the Leader to be called on to do that or to be accused of taking part in that type of process because that is not his style. I am aware that in previous times he has deferred legislation such as this. I call for an amendment to the Order of Business that we do not debate the Petroleum (Exploration and Extraction) Safety (Amendment) Bill today, that it be deferred to at least next week.