Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Any time I speak on Committee or Report Stages I am always honest, even with our own Minister, and I point out what I think could be changed in a Bill. It is very important that we have flexibility. If we pass legislation that does not have flexibility when it comes to regulations, we will be no longer able to make regulations that are robust and exactly fit for purpose. It is only at the time we sit down to make regulations that we can really truly see how to make them as robust as possible. We are fortunate that we have a Minister who has pulled out all of the stops to put the Bill in front of us in a very timely manner. Everybody in the House has recognised this. It is the same Minister who will be involved in the regulations. Therefore, I trust that he needs this flexibility and we need to make sure it is as robust as possible. An amendment has been accepted on Report Stage that will ensure it can be reviewed. Given all of this, I am perfectly satisfied that it must be the word "may" rather than "shall".