Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

My colleague, Senator McDowell, made some valid arguments. I take some offence from the Minister's remark about Senator McDowell and his "comrades" frustrating a process. No one is here to frustrate a process. The Minister is here to discuss legislation. His leader, the Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar, came to the House once and once only since he became leader, and went to great lengths to tell us, rightly so, that our principal focus must be to improve, polish up and work on legislation. He impressed upon us to stay focused on legislation. He said the role and function of the Upper House, Seanad Éireann, is to home in on, work on and improve legislation in co-operation with other arms of the Legislature, through the Minister with key responsibility for a given matter.

The Minister may not like the intensity of the scrutiny, or he may be under considerable pressure from other individuals or those who are party to these proceedings, but the bottom line is we are doing what is right and what we are elected to do, which is to play a meaningful role in Seanad Éireann on the scrutiny of legislation, of which this is an important aspect. So be it if Fine Gael Senators cannot be here for whatever reasons, many of which will be valid, but we are here. We are here because we are interested and committed, and we are asking hard questions which the Minister must answer. We should not do politics by having people jumping up and down the stairs, but so be it if we must call a quorum. The Minister may stand up and say we are not dealing with it because it was dealt with before, or that he has been here for more than 40 hours, but the Minister will be taken through the Bill section by section. We may decide later in these proceedings today or in the next few days to defer some of this or not to delay it from moving to the next Stage. That is also our right and prerogative, which I know the Minister would accept. There are many ways of teasing out and prolonging a process if necessary, but the Minister must accept in the spirit of the people here that they are here to tease out this legislation.

On Senator McDowell's point, I have spoken directly to members of Fine Gael and other parties who have serious concerns about this legislation. It is the nature of a large political movement and party that people will not agree on everything. There is a commitment in the programme for Government, however, and the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross, is committed to this. I do not wish to personalise the matter because I am not in the business of personalising politics, but the bottom line is that people are under pressure and want to deliver. There is a common belief that there will be an election in two or three months and, therefore, people must build Garda stations here, community centres there, health facilities somewhere else and deliver on all the promises, but they will not deliver on all the promises because the promises were not always right, correct or suitable to proceed with.

Our function as Senators in regard to this legislation is to tease it out with the Minister, the principal Minister with responsibility in this area, who has much knowledge of the legal profession. He is well versed and trained in this area and, therefore, it should not be difficult for him to respond. He should show his respect for the House, that is, not for Senator McDowell, Senator Boyhan or anybody else. He should answer the questions that were put because the more he delays, the more issues people will have. This process may take many more hours but what is the rush?

I also read The Irish Timeseditorial on the Bill. No one circulated it to me but I went down to the Library, got a copy for myself and I read it. It was impressive journalism, which discusses the mess that is the Bill. I am sorry if the Minister is caught in the middle of the matter and is being forced to deliver this for a particular purpose or a particular Minister, but we would fail in our job if we did not tease out each and every issue with the Bill. I appeal to the Minister to respond to the simple questions which Senator McDowell put to him.