Vol. 173 No. 1
Seanad Éireann has made the following Orders:—
That the Fisheries (Consolidation) Bill, 1958, be referred to the Standing Joint Committee on Consolidation Bills. That the first meeting of the Committee be held on a date not earlier than 26th February, 1959.
I move:—
That the Fisheries (Consolidation) Bill, 1958, be referred to the Standing Joint Committee on Consolidation Bills. That the first meeting of the Committee be held on a date not earlier than 26th February, 1959.
This procedure seems to be one of ill-omen because I think I started it about 1951 and my Government promptly fell. The Fianna Fáil Government of 1951-54 returned to the charge and their Government promptly fell.
Third time lucky.
Our Government of 1954-57 referred it to a Joint Committee and the Government promptly fell. May we nourish the hope that this is a signal of national relief that this Government is about to fall?
Surely the Deputy does not expect me to put that to the House.
I do not expect it to be put from the Chair, but I think I may mention the pious hope that a ray of sunshine is beginning to appear on the horizon from the point of view of the nation as a whole. I agree it is a pity that this Bill has had such a chequered career because it represented a great deal of very hard work but I should like to be reassured by the Minister for Lands that the Fisheries Consolidation Bill in its present form incorporates all the fishery law. I am not altogether certain that there has not been some amendment of the fishery law since this Bill was drafted. Have the recent amendments been incorporated in this Bill which is now to be referred to the Joint Committee?
The most recent Bill has been incorporated.
So that this Bill will present the fishery law as it stands as of to-day.
Yes.
I hope, for the sake of argument, that this Bill also will fall by the roadside, but I readily give the House an undertaking that if that happy event should transpire, we shall lose no time in sending the Bill to the appropriate committee for prompt enactment.
