Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As the Minister of State has said, this is a largely technical Bill. In the justice area, one often deals with legislation arising from court judgments. This Bill is largely the result of rulings of the courts in July of this year.It is a technical Bill. I respect that there are minor changes the Minister of State would like to make, as we all would. The changes are in train. New politics is working very well. The role of Parliament is completely different compared to any other Dáil and Seanad because the Government has no choice but to listen and to take amendments on board that are constructive from across the House. That is good for politics. I would much prefer to see a consensus-style politics. It works very well in other countries but it is still in its infancy in this country. It will be a very interesting and exciting chapter in the political history of this country and society will be far better for it.

I am delighted to support the Bill. I commend the Minister of State, Deputy Stanton. He has had a very busy six months and I am sure he is looking forward to taking some downtime over the Christmas period and I wish him well in that regard.