Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It beggars belief that we are in this position after ten months of discussion and negotiations. We wanted to support some amendments the Government proposed but it did not table them and therefore we did. The cynical part of this is that if the Government had tabled them, they could have been included in the Bill. We tabled them, and because of that, the Chair has ruled, as is his right, that they are a charge on the Exchequer and they now cannot be included in the Bill. We have been here long enough to know that is cynical behaviour. In regard to sections 8 and 9, I appeal to colleagues to get this through Committee Stage and then we will sit down with them again. I have no problem sitting down with the Government again on Report Stage, which will be four weeks from today, and we will change the Standing Orders and the Order of Business to take Report Stage. If the Government would like to table its amendments, that is fine. If it does not want to table its amendments and it wants to kill it technically, we will bring the Bill into the Dáil and I guarantee it will pass. We will get it to Committee Stage in the Dáil also and we will get it past that Stage with the support of Sinn Féin and the Independents. To be here after ten months of engagement, debating what is left of the amendments and the Government not having tabled its own amendments because it could not reach consensus, is incredible. Three years ago, when this Bill was shot to pieces, no one asked us about consensus. That the Government has not tabled its amendments because of the argument that there is no consensus beggars belief.