Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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481. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine in respect of each Bill for which his Department had responsibility and that was initiated in 2024, or that was enacted in 2024, to specify in which House of the Oireachtas the Bill was initiated; the number of ministerial or Government amendments submitted at each legislative Stage of the Bill; if the guillotine was used on the Bill in either House of the Oireachtas and the time allowed for each Stage; if ministerial or Government amendments to other legislation were only included in the Bill via amendment, after the Bill had been initiated, bypassing earlier Stages; the number of pages in the Bill when initiated and when it completed the legislative process, or as it currently stands amended for any lapsed Bills; if the Minister or the Government changed the scope of the Bill after it was initiated, and at which Stage and in which House this was done; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4241/25]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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The Agriculture Appeals (Amendment) Bill 2024 was initiated in Dáil Éireann on 4 July 2024 and was enacted on 29 October 2024 as the Agriculture Appeals (Amendment) Act 2024 (No. 38 of 2024).

Sections 3-15 of the 2024 Act amend various provisions of the Agriculture Appeals Act 2001, and s. 16 of the 2024 Act amends s. 24 of the Fisheries (Amendment) Act 1997. All sixteen sections, including the amendments to the 1997 Act, were included in the Bill as initiated. Two numbered amendments to the Bill were submitted by the Government on 9 October 2024 at the Report and Final Stages in Dáil Éireann. These amended the long title of the Bill and the (corresponding) text of section 16.

The guillotine was not used on the Bill at any stage. The Bill was debated over several days; it was initiated in Dáil Éireann on 4 July, Second Stage in Dáil Éireann took place on 11 July 2024 and it was referred to Select Committee on the same date, the Committee Stage Debate took place on 25th September 2024, the Report and Final Stages in Dáil Éireann were on 9 October, the Second Stage in Seanad Éireann took place on 17 October 2024 and Report and the Final Stages in Seanad Éireann took place on 23 October 2024.

The Bill as initiated was 17 pages. The Bill as enacted was 17 pages. The scope of the Bill was not altered by the Minister during its passage through the Oireachtas.