Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

On Committee Stage the Government side relied heavily on the fact that Second Stage was taken in this House on 13 May. I checked my records and found that I was detained at the banking inquiry and, unfortunately, was compelled to attend that inquiry. I apologise to the House for that. I read the debate where the Minister made her contribution. Not mentioned were the conveyancing monopoly, the right of audience or the transfer of Law Society and Bar Council staff to the new authority. That was unsatisfactory and the procedure by which we are now working off three documents is also unsatisfactory. The Minister said on 13 May that she could not give a comprehensive account of the Bill in all its detail. We are progressing in a most unsatisfactory manner, bits are being added and then changed again subsequently on Report Stage. I appreciate what Senator David Norris has said. We have to ask the Minister, given that she has changed her mind so many times, to explain at each stage what precisely we are asked to vote upon.There are so many sections, and accepting this amendment means we reject the amendment we accepted the last day.

What is the configuration of the Bill? The Competition Authority was invoked as being supportive of the Bill but listening back to the "Prime Time" programme in question gave me the opposite impression. No discussions have taken place since last April with the Competition Authority and Isolde Goggins said this quite plainly on "Prime Time" on 19 November. We have to conclude this is a producers' Bill. The consumers have been neglected and this House has been neglected and bypassed where it was felt necessary.