It is proposed to take No. 33, Environment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014 - Report Stage (resumed) and Final Stages; and No. 5a, Civil Debt (Procedures) Bill 2015 - Order for Second Stage and Second Stage. It is proposed, notwithstanding anything in Standing Orders, that the Dáil shall sit later than 5.30 p.m. tonight and shall adjourn on the conclusion of the Topical Issue debate which shall take place not later than 9 p.m. tonight; the sitting shall be suspended at 2.30 p.m. today for 30 minutes; the proceedings on No. 33 shall, if not previously concluded, be brought to a conclusion at 9 p.m. tonight by one question which shall be put from the Chair and which shall, in relation to amendments, include only those set down or accepted by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government; the Dáil shall sit tomorrow at 10 a.m. and shall adjourn not later than 4 p.m., there shall be no Order of Business, within the meaning of Standing Order 26, any divisions demanded will be postponed until immediately after the Order of Business on Tuesday, 7 July 2015 and, accordingly, the business to be transacted shall be as follows: No. 5a, Civil Debt (Procedures) Bill 2015 - Second Stage; and No. a1, Petroleum (Exploration and Extraction) Safety Bill 2015 [Seanad] - Second Stage.
Order of Business
There are four proposals to be put to the House. The first is that the proposal for dealing with the late sitting be agreed to. Is that agreed?
It is not agreed. We have often agreed to late sittings where there are matters of importance or emerging legislation that merit that, but we will not agree to a late sitting this evening which has the express purpose of continuing the sham with the Environment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill. The choreography and cynicism that have been demonstrated by the Government is apparent to everyone at this stage. The Government is clearly abusing its position in the manner of ordering the business of this House to ramrod legislation through the House that will have very serious consequences and implications for people who are struggling to get by, as the Government continues to insist on its unjust and unjustifiable water charges.
I note in a later proposal the Government also intends to guillotine that same piece of legislation. I do not think the Government should abuse the Dáil and Dáil procedure in this way. It is for that reason that we oppose a late sitting this evening.
In regard to proposals Nos. 1 and 3, which is a proposal to guillotine-----
We are just dealing with No. 1.
After much of the downtime the Dáil has experienced in recent weeks whereby the schedule was not very heavy, it is totally unacceptable that we should have a late sitting today and probably again in the coming weeks. The normal procedure of the Dáil has been abused in terms of the way the Government has approached the Environment (Miscellaneous) Provisions Bill. The reason for tonight's late sitting is because the Government has been trying to sneak in amendments on Report Stage instead of ensuring they were dealt with on previous Stages of the Bill or, as was proposed yesterday, that the Bill would have been recommitted to Committee Stage. Instead, the Government is seeking that the House would sit late to suit its agenda of trying to ensure that such issues are not debated and that the Opposition would not get a proper chance to address them and table amendments. For that reason, we will oppose the proposal for a late sitting.
We hear much rhetoric about having a family-friendly Dáil but situations such as this, which the Government creates, whereby the Dáil sits until 10.30 p.m. do not in any way contribute to ensuring that this is an attractive place for people to work.
The Government is suiting its own purposes, driving legislation through the Dáil and not ensuring the democratic mandate we all have is exercised by ensuring there is proper debate.
I cannot believe the Tánaiste has the nerve to guillotine the debate on the Bill at 9 p.m. tonight.
We are discussing the proposal for the late sitting.
I am very sorry. I will speak later.
We will come to it.
We provided some nine hours of debate on the legislation, which has been well flagged and detailed to the Dáil. Yesterday, several hours of debate were spent on one point. When the Minister of State, Deputy Ann Phelan, flagged it to the Opposition, well in advance, she made it very clear that additional amendments would be introduced. A debate on it and on the Long Title of the Bill took place, as required. The Government, in allocating nine hours of debate today, is seeking to provide the kind of time for debate which the Opposition Deputies indicated yesterday that they desired. I am surprised the Opposition Members, who were clamouring for an amount of time to debate the legislation, do not seem to want it now.
It is a family-friendly guillotine.
Tá
- Bruton, Richard.
- Burton, Joan.
- Butler, Ray.
- Buttimer, Jerry.
- Byrne, Catherine.
- Cannon, Ciarán.
- Carey, Joe.
- Coffey, Paudie.
- Collins, Áine.
- Conlan, Seán.
- Connaughton, Paul J.
- Conway, Ciara.
- Coonan, Noel.
- Corcoran Kennedy, Marcella.
- Costello, Joe.
- Daly, Jim.
- Deasy, John.
- Deering, Pat.
- Dowds, Robert.
- Doyle, Andrew.
- English, Damien.
- Farrell, Alan.
- Fitzgerald, Frances.
- Fitzpatrick, Peter.
- Harrington, Noel.
- Hayes, Tom.
- Heydon, Martin.
- Humphreys, Kevin.
- Kehoe, Paul.
- Kelly, Alan.
- Kenny, Seán.
- Kyne, Seán.
- Lawlor, Anthony.
- Lyons, John.
- McCarthy, Michael.
- McEntee, Helen.
- McFadden, Gabrielle.
- McGinley, Dinny.
- McHugh, Joe.
- McLoughlin, Tony.
- McNamara, Michael.
- Mitchell, Olivia.
- Mitchell O'Connor, Mary.
- Mulherin, Michelle.
- Nash, Gerald.
- Neville, Dan.
- Nolan, Derek.
- O'Donovan, Patrick.
- O'Dowd, Fergus.
- O'Mahony, John.
- O'Reilly, Joe.
- O'Sullivan, Jan.
- Penrose, Willie.
- Rabbitte, Pat.
- Reilly, James.
- Ring, Michael.
- Ryan, Brendan.
- Shatter, Alan.
- Sherlock, Sean.
- Spring, Arthur.
- Stagg, Emmet.
- Stanton, David.
- Tuffy, Joanna.
- Varadkar, Leo.
- Walsh, Brian.
Níl
- Aylward, Bobby.
- Broughan, Thomas P.
- Calleary, Dara.
- Collins, Niall.
- Colreavy, Michael.
- Coppinger, Ruth.
- Daly, Clare.
- Donnelly, Stephen S.
- Dooley, Timmy.
- Ferris, Martin.
- Fitzmaurice, Michael.
- Flanagan, Terence.
- Fleming, Sean.
- Fleming, Tom.
- Grealish, Noel.
- Healy, Seamus.
- Keaveney, Colm.
- Kelleher, Billy.
- Kirk, Seamus.
- Mac Lochlainn, Pádraig.
- McConalogue, Charlie.
- McDonald, Mary Lou.
- McGrath, Finian.
- McLellan, Sandra.
- Murphy, Catherine.
- Murphy, Paul.
- Naughten, Denis.
- Ó Caoláin, Caoimhghín.
- Ó Cuív, Éamon.
- Ó Fearghaíl, Seán.
- Ó Snodaigh, Aengus.
- O'Sullivan, Maureen.
- Ross, Shane.
- Shortall, Róisín.
- Smith, Brendan.
- Stanley, Brian.
- Tóibín, Peadar.
- Troy, Robert.
- Wallace, Mick.
Is the proposal for dealing with the suspension of the sitting agreed to? Agreed. Is the proposal for dealing No. 33 agreed to?
It is not agreed. Over the last few days we were repeatedly told that amendments had been flagged. The standard procedure for flagging amendments is to propose them at the relevant stages of the Bill so they can be appropriately debated. The Government is trying to sneak in amendments on Report Stage which are not related to the context of the Bill, while refusing to recommit the Bill to Committee Stage to allow for sufficient debate. Tonight, as has happened on many occasions under this Government, the debate on the Bill is being guillotined -----
As parties that promised -----
Fianna Fáil guillotined the debate on nearly every Bill it introduced.
Deputy Stagg, please.
As parties which promised there would be no guillotining -----
Deputy Troy should bring back Mary O'Rourke.
----- the unfortunate reality under this Government is that -----
More U-turns
This is not a shouting chamber; it is a democratically elected assembly. Please allow the Deputy to make his case without interruption.
The two Government parties promised they would put an end to the guillotine but we have seen an increase in the number of Bills the debates on which have been guillotined.
Rubbish.
Tonight we are seeing that again.
It is being bulldozed through the House.
Absolute rubbish.
Do not get excited. I think the Deputy has made his point.
We cannot support this proposal and we ask instead that the debate be given appropriate time, at the minimum by extending the period allocated for debate on it.
In its original incarnation the Environment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014 dealt with matters including dog breeding, dog licences and Killarney National Park. The Government will need a flexible interpretation of the law if it wants to explain why this Bill can be used as a vehicle to force landlords to inform Irish Water who is renting their properties, make it compulsory that charges be paid prior to the sale of a house, include in tenancy agreements an obligation to pay the Irish Water tax and make local authorities the enforcers of the tax. It is a bit of a stretch by any standard to include these matters in the Bill. This is just the latest episode in which the Government has demonstrated not only contempt for the Dáil, which we could probably stomach, but also utter contempt for the citizens outside this House. Several months ago I asked the Tánaiste to show her hand on the penalties being cooked up for people who were unable to or would not pay these unfair water charges.
That includes Deputy McDonald.
She avoided that question like the plague. These issues have been stored until now, so that they could be included in legislation dealing with dog breeding, dog licences and Killarney National Park.
This is all in an effort to railroad this legislation through just before the summer in the vain hope that they will get away with it because people will be distracted, will go off on their holidays and will forget all about it. If that is the Tánaiste's assessment, she is very wrong.
On a matter of good parliamentary practice, even if we were to accept that this legislation on dog breeding and licensing and Killarney National Park was the appropriate mechanism-----
I am sorry but we cannot have a speech. I think the Deputy has made her point.
The Tánaiste is not even affording the basic right to a proper scrutiny of the amendments because she is cynically guillotining the Bill. I would like to comfort Deputy Rabbitte who is extremely anxious at this stage.
I call Deputy Coppinger.
I said there were not to be any sit-ins.
A vow of silence. The code of omertà.
I imagine that when Deputy Rabbitte and his colleagues go knocking on people's doors, they will not be invited to sit in the kitchens or homesteads of the many people who have had to pay the water charges.
We do it every week. We are up four points in the polls and you are going down.
Please allow Deputy Coppinger to speak.
I am hoping that some of the very loud voices that shouted down Deputy McDonald will not do the same to me. It is bad enough that the Government has had eight months since last November to introduce this legislation, but it has also left it until just before the summer recess to shove it in. In addition, the debate will be guillotined at 9 o'clock tonight, with the effect that many Government amendments will not be discussed. The measures include new leases for tenants who constitute a very vulnerable group in our society with the housing crisis, given that the Government is not building any houses. Other measures include landlords handing over information. It is clear to me that the Tánaiste does not want Members to discuss this.
The Deputy has made her point.
She wants the message to go out to tenants that they could be evicted when in fact the Bill will follow tenants, not landlords. Landlords should not be interfering in it. This is the third time that really serious legislation on water charges has been introduced in an underhand way by the Government that is pushing it through.
I think the Deputy has made her point.
The Tánaiste made sure that the debate on a motion on lone parents took place at 10.30 p.m. last night. Women are going to community welfare officers, thanks to those cuts.
I think you have made your point.
They are putting messages around on Facebook.
I call on the Tánaiste to respond.
The Tánaiste attempts to say that only 20% of them are in poverty, while 63% are in poverty according to a survey.
This is about taking a piece of legislation.
Those are the issues the Tánaiste does not want to be brought out tonight.
Will the Deputy, please, resume her seat?
I can assure the Tánaiste that the people will not forgive her for water charges or the cuts to the lone-parent family payment scheme.
The regulations on dogs are long overdue.
We will not deal with dogs now. We will deal with the amount of time that is available.
If the Deputy is objecting to dealing with regulations on dogs, she is wrong.
It is a burning issue.
For people who care about animals, it is. There are people here who care about how animals are treated in this country.
The Tánaiste does not care.
Settle down please.
Deputy McDonald may not have read far enough to have seen that this particular legislation is dealing with quite important environmental issues, including fines for using smoky coal in unauthorised areas, which is an important environmental issue. Second, it also includes regulations on the disposal of electrical waste, which is another important environmental issue.
I do not think we need to go through the whole Bill now.
Third, it extends the work and scope of the Environmental Protection Agency. Above all else, water is an environmental and health issue, as well as being an economic one.
We did not say that it was not.
It is appropriate to discuss Irish Water in the context of other sections of the Bill which deal with water and other environmental issues.
Why were all the other issues lumped in as well?
The legislation provides for the €100 payment for the water conservation grant. It is an important payment, particularly for people of limited means such as pensioners who are anxious and are paying their water charges.
Tá
- Bruton, Richard.
- Burton, Joan.
- Butler, Ray.
- Buttimer, Jerry.
- Byrne, Catherine.
- Cannon, Ciarán.
- Carey, Joe.
- Coffey, Paudie.
- Conlan, Seán.
- Connaughton, Paul J.
- Conway, Ciara.
- Coonan, Noel.
- Corcoran Kennedy, Marcella.
- Costello, Joe.
- Daly, Jim.
- Deasy, John.
- Deering, Pat.
- Doherty, Regina.
- Dowds, Robert.
- Doyle, Andrew.
- Durkan, Bernard J.
- English, Damien.
- Fitzgerald, Frances.
- Fitzpatrick, Peter.
- Harrington, Noel.
- Hayes, Tom.
- Heydon, Martin.
- Humphreys, Kevin.
- Kehoe, Paul.
- Kelly, Alan.
- Kenny, Seán.
- Kyne, Seán.
- Lawlor, Anthony.
- Lyons, John.
- McCarthy, Michael.
- McEntee, Helen.
- McFadden, Gabrielle.
- McGinley, Dinny.
- McHugh, Joe.
- McLoughlin, Tony.
- McNamara, Michael.
- Mitchell, Olivia.
- Mitchell O'Connor, Mary.
- Mulherin, Michelle.
- Nash, Gerald.
- Neville, Dan.
- Nolan, Derek.
- O'Donovan, Patrick.
- O'Dowd, Fergus.
- O'Mahony, John.
- O'Reilly, Joe.
- O'Sullivan, Jan.
- Penrose, Willie.
- Rabbitte, Pat.
- Reilly, James.
- Ring, Michael.
- Ryan, Brendan.
- Sherlock, Sean.
- Spring, Arthur.
- Stagg, Emmet.
- Stanton, David.
- Tuffy, Joanna.
- Varadkar, Leo.
- Walsh, Brian.
Níl
- Aylward, Bobby.
- Broughan, Thomas P.
- Calleary, Dara.
- Collins, Niall.
- Colreavy, Michael.
- Coppinger, Ruth.
- Daly, Clare.
- Donnelly, Stephen S.
- Ferris, Martin.
- Fitzmaurice, Michael.
- Flanagan, Terence.
- Fleming, Tom.
- Grealish, Noel.
- Healy, Seamus.
- Keaveney, Colm.
- Kelleher, Billy.
- Kirk, Seamus.
- Mac Lochlainn, Pádraig.
- McConalogue, Charlie.
- McDonald, Mary Lou.
- McGrath, Finian.
- McLellan, Sandra.
- Murphy, Catherine.
- Murphy, Paul.
- Naughten, Denis.
- Ó Caoláin, Caoimhghín.
- Ó Cuív, Éamon.
- Ó Fearghaíl, Seán.
- Ó Snodaigh, Aengus.
- O'Sullivan, Maureen.
- Ross, Shane.
- Shortall, Róisín.
- Smith, Brendan.
- Stanley, Brian.
- Tóibín, Peadar.
- Troy, Robert.
- Wallace, Mick.
The final proposal to be put to the House is the proposal for dealing with the sitting and business of the Dáil tomorrow. Is that agreed?
It is not agreed.
The two pieces of legislation are important. The Government is proposing we have a gimmick Dáil day, with no Order of Business, no Leaders' Questions and no votes. That is simply unacceptable and is not the way this Parliament should operate. Unfortunately, it is representative of the way the Government treats legislation and we will not accept it. This legislation should be postponed until next week to deal with it appropriately on a proper day. Alternatively, there should be a full Dáil sitting tomorrow, like today and any normal sitting. We will oppose this proposal.
Has Deputy McConalogue not got a clinic tomorrow?
The Government proposes to continue its parliamentary sham tomorrow. One of the pieces of legislation allows the Government to raid people's social welfare payments, to stick its hand in people's pockets and to deduct unpaid water charges with absolute disregard for the circumstances of those people.
One of the Bills, the Civil Debt (Procedures) Bill 2015, was only published on Monday. There were no heads of a Bill and there was no pre-legislative stage. The convention of having a two-week gap between each Stage has gone out of the window because that does not suit the Government. What suits it is to bring this legislation forward, shut down or minimise debate and get it done and dusted in order that Government party Members can go off with their buckets and spades and to hell with the people-----
I think the Deputy has made her point. Will Deputies, please, settle down? Please stay quiet. I ask the Deputy for a short contribution.
This is important.
Yes, but it is only a proposal on the Order of Business.
In circumstances where the Government, with the full support of its backbenchers, is behaving in this way and misusing proper parliamentary procedures, it is only to be expected that they will be challenged in the most vigorous terms.
That is fine.
It is called democracy
The legislation on which the Government is intent, a bullies' charter and a pickpockets' charter, at least deserves full consideration and, given its seriousness, should be scrupulously examined on each Stage. The Government should respect the conventions such as the two-week gap. Why does the Government not do that? It is because it is politically inconvenient and it wants it done and dusted in the vain hope that people will forget, the summer will intervene and the Government will get away with it. It will not get away with this and it should not get away with such clear contempt for parliamentary procedures.
It is gross cynicism to hold a discussion on new legislation on a Friday without a vote when we all know most Deputies will not be here. Even on a good day most of them do not bother to come in for key legislation but to hold it on a non-sitting day-----
There will be a vote on Tuesday.
When I was on Fingal County Council one was not allowed to vote on a rezoning discussion if one did not attend the debate.
A Deputy
Opposition Deputies spent five hours yesterday on one amendment.
The Government is using this legislation in the media to threaten and intimidate people into believing they must pay their water charges because the Government will be able to deduct it directly from their social welfare payments and wages, which is not true. It is clear the Government does not want a real debate but is happy that the media uses the legislation in that way. The legislation is quite toothless and will not be able to deal with a mass boycott of water charges. It might be able to deal with a television licence not being paid but it will not be able to deal with the hundreds of thousands who will not pay the water charges. It would be better to have a debate on this on a normal day when people would be present for both the debate and the vote.
Tá
- Bruton, Richard.
- Burton, Joan.
- Butler, Ray.
- Buttimer, Jerry.
- Byrne, Catherine.
- Cannon, Ciarán.
- Carey, Joe.
- Coffey, Paudie.
- Collins, Áine.
- Conlan, Seán.
- Connaughton, Paul J.
- Conway, Ciara.
- Coonan, Noel.
- Corcoran Kennedy, Marcella.
- Costello, Joe.
- Daly, Jim.
- Deasy, John.
- Deering, Pat.
- Doherty, Regina.
- Dowds, Robert.
- Doyle, Andrew.
- English, Damien.
- Farrell, Alan.
- Fitzgerald, Frances.
- Fitzpatrick, Peter.
- Griffin, Brendan.
- Harrington, Noel.
- Hayes, Tom.
- Heydon, Martin.
- Humphreys, Kevin.
- Kehoe, Paul.
- Kelly, Alan.
- Kenny, Seán.
- Kyne, Seán.
- Lawlor, Anthony.
- Lyons, John.
- McCarthy, Michael.
- McEntee, Helen.
- McFadden, Gabrielle.
- McHugh, Joe.
- McLoughlin, Tony.
- Mitchell, Olivia.
- Mitchell O'Connor, Mary.
- Mulherin, Michelle.
- Nash, Gerald.
- Neville, Dan.
- Nolan, Derek.
- O'Donovan, Patrick.
- O'Dowd, Fergus.
- O'Mahony, John.
- O'Reilly, Joe.
- O'Sullivan, Jan.
- Penrose, Willie.
- Perry, John.
- Rabbitte, Pat.
- Reilly, James.
- Ring, Michael.
- Ryan, Brendan.
- Sherlock, Sean.
- Stagg, Emmet.
- Stanton, David.
- Tuffy, Joanna.
- Varadkar, Leo.
- Walsh, Brian.
Níl
- Aylward, Bobby.
- Broughan, Thomas P.
- Calleary, Dara.
- Collins, Niall.
- Colreavy, Michael.
- Coppinger, Ruth.
- Daly, Clare.
- Donnelly, Stephen S.
- Ferris, Martin.
- Fitzmaurice, Michael.
- Flanagan, Terence.
- Fleming, Sean.
- Fleming, Tom.
- Grealish, Noel.
- Healy, Seamus.
- Keaveney, Colm.
- Kirk, Seamus.
- Mac Lochlainn, Pádraig.
- McConalogue, Charlie.
- McDonald, Mary Lou.
- McGrath, Finian.
- McLellan, Sandra.
- Murphy, Catherine.
- Murphy, Paul.
- Naughten, Denis.
- Ó Caoláin, Caoimhghín.
- Ó Cuív, Éamon.
- Ó Fearghaíl, Seán.
- Ó Snodaigh, Aengus.
- O'Brien, Jonathan.
- O'Sullivan, Maureen.
- Ross, Shane.
- Shortall, Róisín.
- Smith, Brendan.
- Stanley, Brian.
- Timmins, Billy.
- Tóibín, Peadar.
- Troy, Robert.
- Wallace, Mick.