Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I respect the ruling of the Chair and acknowledge that the Government and Ministers have no role in deciding whether amendments are discussed. In this legislation we are trying to protect and maintain the arrangements in place. This is emergency legislation to try to protect the status quo, where possible, whether it is for students, buses, ports, pilotage or anything else. It is not about trying to introduce a new policy direction. It is a perfectly legitimate issue on which to have a debate, but it should not add new considerations to extradition. That is an issue on which the Minister for Justice and Equality can be questioned and, if he wants to introduce or propose that we introduce changes in that area at EU level, it would be legitimate to debate the proposals. In other sections people have tried to tag on things about which they feel strongly or where they want to enhance a certain policy approach, but the amendments have consistently been ruled out of order, both in the Dáil and the Seanad. This legislation tries to protect existing arrangements or keep things as close as possible to them. Extradition between the United Kingdom and Ireland is covered by the fact that we both have EU membership and the European arrest warrant applies, but as the latter will no longer apply after Brexit, we are trying to replicate the current arrangements as closely as possible. It is not about the extradition of somebody to Iraq, Iran or some part of the world where we have concerns about the particular region.