Seanad debates

Wednesday, 6 July 2022

Higher Education Authority Bill 2022: Committee Stage

 

10:00 am

Photo of Alice-Mary HigginsAlice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

With respect, people saying they are available tomorrow and on Friday is straightforwardly disingenuous. This was the first item placed on the Order Paper this year. The Bill has been on the Order Paper, ready to move, for months but it has been chosen to progress it in the past two to three weeks of this Seanad term. This is about this decision and future ones. My memory in respect of a request having been made and to whom it was made is the same. I concur in that regard.

There is an opportunity. Let us move to the next Stage. There will be opportunities, for example, for the Government and the Leader to give a guarantee that Report Stage will not be guillotined. Perhaps the Minister will state on the record if it is his preference that Report Stage not be guillotined. If that means that Report Stage needs to be continued in autumn, so be it. While the Minister may be available tomorrow or the next day, the fact is that he is not the only Minister in play. There are several other pieces of legislation that are also under time pressure. If the Bill was an urgent matter, it could have been brought forward two or three months ago. It could have been brought forward-----

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