Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome any indication of flexibility on the issues that have been raised. The Minister should remember something. He pointed out that this has been a long debate and that these matters have been raised before. Like me or any other Senator, he has been in a position to table additional amendments to cater for these issues in order that we might discuss them on Committee Stage. He has preferred to follow a different rubric, namely, to keep his powder entirely dry, just listen to the debate and not deal with these issues - if he does have concerns about them - until Report Stage. I fully know and accept that it is open to the House to recommit any substantial amendment on Report Stage. One of the disadvantages of Report Stage is that if that is not done, the debate is effectively guillotined to one contribution of a limited kind from each speaker. As a result, the dialogue that would be necessary to consider some of these issues is simply not going to happen in the way it should unless the Bill is recommitted in respect of the relevant amendments on Report Stage. I do not want to anticipate the individual instances in which that may be appropriate or inappropriate. It would be a lot more satisfactory to someone in my situation if I got a clear indication of what the Minister means by the language he just used. If he has concerns about the role of the Attorney General, can he share them with us? I am blue in the face banging on about them and now we have a situation in which the Minister has gone on record and stated that he appears to understand my concerns to some extent and that he is thinking about addressing them. Surely, particularly as this debate has gone on and on, we should hear now about these proposals to amend the legislation to deal with these matters.