I want to get the timing agreed between the Minister and Deputy Costello in particular. We had agreed to meet tomorrow morning at 9.30 a.m for Committee Stage of the Intoxicating Liquor Bill. I understand that there is a need to get Committee Stage over so that Report and Final Stages can be completed. I understand that Report and Final Stages of the Immigration Bill are scheduled to be taken on Tuesday next and those for the Intoxicating Liquor Bill on Wednesday next. What I am suggesting is that we proceed as originally agreed, from 9.30 a.m, until the Order of Business and then from 7 p.m. for a number of hours when I hope the Immigration Bill will be completed. Tomorrow morning we will complete Committee Stage of the Intoxicating Liquor Bill. Will the Minister be able to facilitate us on that?
Business of Select Committee.
I have indicated the hours in which I am available, for as long as it takes, subject to one or two other commitments this week. I am in the hands of the committee.
Unfortunately on Friday the committee will visit Templemore Garda station, which is already pencilled in.
The Minister should realise we are all facilitating the process. We did not expect that we would be rushed into dealing with two major items of legislation at the end of the session. We certainly could have dealt with the Immigration Bill long ago. This was introduced in February last year. The Minister has spent a lot of time explaining, including on "Morning Ireland", the urgency of getting this legislation through, but he did not mention that the Bill was introduced in February 2002 and that there was no need for this 11th hour rush. We are prepared to co-operate, but we are certainly very disappointed and annoyed with the way the Minister managed this, giving the impression, again, that it is gamesmanship on the part of the Labour Party and others in opposition.
The opposition to proceeding with the Bill in this manner came not just from me. A former Member of the Dáil, former Senator Maurice Manning, chairman of the Human Rights Commission, has also opposed it. Opposition also came from the other organisations concerned with human rights and with the issues of immigration. In this context, everybody but the Minister thinks it is rushed.
Here we are getting not just one, but two Bills. It is a guillotine, with a gun being put to our heads. There are two major meetings at 7 p.m this evening that I should attend, but I have put them aside to facilitate this legislation. We will debate the Intoxicating Liquor Bill until 5.50 p.m in the Dáil today and will deal with Committee Stage at 9.30 a.m. tomorrow morning. That gives us very little time. There is no need for that.
It took two years to get four interim reports from the liquor licensing commission and the strategic report of the Department of Health and Children task force, which has been sitting around for 12 months, and now, at the last minute, we are bulldozing through these two Bills. It is not good enough for the Minister to say that he has put everything aside and is prepared to deal with the matter now. The rest of us have to deal with it as well. We do not have the Minister's resources in preparing Second Stage, Committee Stage or Report Stage. It is not good enough. It is not fair. We have no staff to deal with this even though there are parliamentary procedures to be dealt with, and the Minister knows them better than most. I am extremely disappointed with the way this has been done. I do not like the Minister trying to achieve one-upmanship on the Opposition in the public arena when it is he who is at fault in presenting the matter in this way. That being said, I will co-operate as much as I can in facilitating scrutiny of the legislation as comprehensively and expeditiously as possible.
Deputy Costello, I thank you for your co-operation. I understand the resource deficit for front bench spokespersons, particularly for the front bench spokesperson on justice. The work and effort you have put in as the Labour front bench spokesperson has been enormous, without having the resources that, I hope, will be there when the new Oireachtas Commission is in place. It is a deficit that we all have to address within the Oireachtas, but I appreciate your co-operation in the timing of our meetings.
When deciding in which House the Intoxicating Liquor Bill should be introduced I decided on the Seanad, partly because Deputy Costello had indicated that he was not available for the committee session last week. I facilitated him by changing House and initiating the Bill in the Seanad. That was one of the considerations that was in my mind.
I was not available for two days last week——
I was told that the Deputy was not available last week.
In the past six months——
I am not criticising the Deputy, I am just telling him that I tried to facilitate him.
That is no excuse for bringing in the Bill at the last minute.
The Intoxicating Liquor Bill is being introduced as a response to the liquor licensing report, which was completed quickly. There is a serious problem there. I know the Deputy does not agree with the proposals in the Bill. Nonetheless, it is being introduced because there are urgent issues, as we see it.
I reiterate that the officials in my Department are in a position to brief Opposition Deputies if they want to be briefed——
There was an invitation to be briefed, but we did not have time to get the briefing.
——and they remain available to help drafting Opposition amendments, if Opposition spokespersons wish.
I thank the committee.
Chairman, you said, and I went along with it, that there should be no time limits on amendments.
I appreciate that. The Minister has agreed to take amendments at any time and I said I would waive the time limit.