Lisa Chambers (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Having listened to some of the contributions, I will respond to some of the matters raised. The Minister and Department have requested that debate on the Bill finish tonight. I was happy to facilitate that because we have gave it three and a half hours on the previous occasion and provided four hours for it tonight. There has been ample opportunity for Members to have their say and we have had a good airing of one of the key issues. There are lots of other issues to come as well.

In terms of the reference that I made to the Tánaiste, I probably should have been clearer. Senator Boyhan mentioned Cabinet confidentiality. For clarification, I was referring to an article published in the Irish Independentstating that, as part of the policing reforms, there would be changes to part of this Bill after the Tánaiste "intervened at Cabinet." I was specifically referring to a publicised piece of journalism in the Irish Independent. That is where the information came from. As Senator Cassells pointed out, we engaged with our party leader and had a number of parliamentary party meetings because that is how the process works when a Government party and a group of Senators work together to use their mandate to achieve change. The position with this Bill, when it came to us, and we have had engagement with the Minister on this, was that a councillor would not be the chair and there would be an independent chair. That is no longer the case. It was changed specifically because of our interventions and amendment No. 84. That is our achievement in the Bill. We have made sure councillors can chair the local community safety partnerships and I have no doubt that some will put themselves forward for those positions.

On the matter of this side of the House only waking up to this issue, Senator Boyhan and I were on the Seanad Public Consultation Committee when it considered the future of local government. At that time, I alerted the House to this particular issue which had been brought to my attention by a number of councillors. I certainly got the impression on that day that it might have been the first time Senator Boyhan had heard about it. We have been-----