Nessa Cosgrove (Labour)

I welcome the Minister of State. I also welcome the opportunity to speak, but I am also disappointed that the Government's amendments came so late in the day A total of 300 amendments is an awful lot for such substantial and important legislation. This Bill is going to affect the lives of some of the most vulnerable groups in society, as the Minister of State well knows. The amendments have arrived too late in the day for us to be able to properly scrutinise them. It is disappointing that we are not able to give them the attention they deserve. I welcome the fact that the Minister of State will be here for the next few weeks, but it is disappointing that even in the context of our first sessions this evening, we were not given adequate time to go through the amendments.