I am asking the House to take the Wild Birds Protection Bill, 1929, next. It is not a very contentious matter and it will facilitate Senator Brown to take it now.
Agreed.
Private Business. - Wild Birds Protection Bill, 1929—Second Stage.
Cathaoirleach
I beg to move that the Wild Birds Protection Bill, 1929, be read a Second Time. I would like to explain why this Bill has to be read for a Second Time, though it is a Bill which passed through this House in all its stages more than six months ago. Under Article 39, I think, of the Constitution, where a Bill initiated into this House goes to the Dáil and is there amended, when it comes back it has, under that peculiar Article of the Constitution, to be considered as a Bill which was initiated in the Dáil, and it has nominally to go through all its stages here again. That seems, of course, a clumsy way of carrying on legislation. But it is partly our own fault, because we have not as yet got a Standing Order which would put it within our own power to regulate procedure when a Bill like this comes back from the Dáil. Under our new Standing Orders, I am glad to say, we will provide against that. When a Bill like this comes back from the Dáil in future it can be taken here on its Report Stage, and therefore we will have only one stage to pass.
Before asking you to pass this Second Stage I have to explain to you what alterations were made in this Bill and how these alterations make the Bill differ from the Bill that we sent to the Dáil, that is to say, how the Bill at present differs from the Bill we sent them. The alterations are very few. The first alteration is in the second section of the Bill. It is purely an alteration of date. It alters the close time from 1st August to 31st July, an alteration of one day, in order to make it correspond with the date in the Game Act. There is no other amendment in the second section. The only amendment in the third section is this—the third section gives the Minister the right to alter the close time for wild birds that are protected by the Bill and also to revoke or amend any such first-mentioned order. Now, the only alteration that has been made in the Bill as it comes back to us is that, in addition to that application by the county council, the Minister for Fisheries may apply to the Minister for Justice for the protection of fisheries and for the alteration of the close time. That was a reasonable alteration and it was made accordingly. The only alteration in Section 4 is the alteration in the penalty.
Section 4 is one which prevents cruelty to birds in the way of using them as scarecrows and decoys and that sort of thing, and it also prevents the use of birdlime. Under the Bill as we sent it to the Dáil the penalty was £25 or three months' imprisonment, or both. As the Bill comes back to us the penalty is a fine of £5 or 14 days' imprisonment. Well, I think that penalty is enough, and it would be scarcely reasonable to increase it. The next alteration made in the Bill in the Dáil was the striking out of a whole section providing a penalty for refusing to give the name and address of a person found in pursuit of game to certain people—that is to say, that anybody who was found to be committing an offence against this Bill was to give his name and address. I am not sure that that was a very workable section and, after all, it was very inquisitorial. It will be found that because the man would not give his name and address to a person who might not have any jurisdiction to ask it, he would be committing an offence.
The next way in which the present Bill differs from the Bill we sent the Dáil is this—the county council are bound to give certain notice if there is an order made on their application to alter the dates of the close time in certain parts of the county. They still have got to do that, but where the Minister for Fisheries asks the Minister for Justice to do this, then the county council is relieved from the duty of publishing the date or publishing that particular order, and that is to be done by the Minister for Fisheries in the way he thinks fit. The last alteration in the Bill is probably the one with which this House will have the least sympathy. Under Section 2 although there is a close time for all birds from 1st March to 31st July, the owner or occupier of land has a right for the protection of his crops to destroy or to catch birds, either by himself or by somebody he employs for the purpose. But a very large number of birds are excepted from that and put in the Schedule, that is the first Schedule of the Bill. That schedule includes practically every bird that deserves and wants protection. It included three birds which are no longer in the Schedule as it comes back to us. One is the bullfinch, the second is the heron, and there are two tits, the great tit and the blue tit. As far as the bullfinch is concerned we are not sorry that he is not protected by the Bill for, after all, the bullfinch is pretty well able to take care of itself. The bullfinch can be shot in the close time by a gardener if he finds that the bird is taking away his fruit. But there are plenty of bullfinches in this country. They can no longer however be the victims of birdlime, and once we protect them in that respect I do not think we need quarrel very much because they are not entirely protected. The heron is another bird that will not suffer except in the case where the Minister for Fisheries thinks it is necessary that they should be deprived of this protection. I am sorry for the two tits but it would be a foolish thing for us to send this Bill back to the Dáil. I would therefore ask the House to pass the Second Reading of this Bill, and I am then going to ask the House to pass the other Stages of the Bill at once. That was a procedure adopted by the House already in the case of the Children Bill. I do not think there is any objection in taking the further Stages of this Bill to-day.
Question—"That the Bill be read a Second Time"—put and agreed to.
I beg to move:
That the Standing Orders be suspended for the purpose of enabling the remaining stages of the Wild Birds Protection Bill, 1929, to be taken to-day.
I second the motion.
Motion agreed to.