I noted the Leader of the House left open for the views of Members of this House how we might discuss the motions to set up the committees before us. I welcome and appreciate his openness in that regard. Personally, I would hope that we might adopt a slightly different approach from the other House and not just have one debate and then, as would be necessary, have separate decisions on the motions. I would prefer and indeed urge upon the House that we should discuss each of these committees, not necessarily at any great length, but separately because there are separate issues that arise in relation to them. Some of us, as members of the committees previously, have had separate experiences that we might wish to refer to.
We did not have in this House the opportunity for a full discussion on committees and reform of the House which the other House did as a substantive motion at an earlier stage. Therefore, there is a good reason for us to depart from the procedure adopted in the other House and to focus discussions on each of the committees in turn. On the question of establishment of the committees, I should like to join very strongly with the views expressed by Senator McGuinness and Senator Robb and express my unhappiness at the fact that the major Joint Committee on Marital Reform has not been brought before us. I join with them in asking the Leader of the House to ensure that this is done as a matter of urgency because this committee must get under way well before Deputies depart which, presumably, most Deputies will do in one way or the other for the month of August. I hope the committee will be well established and have got into their workload before then and could resume early in September.
The Postal and Telecommunications Services Bill which was raised on the Order of Business is a very substantial measure which affects more employees than any other measure which has come before the Seanad in my parliamentary experience. It is a Bill which we should not rush, we should consider it very carefully and not put any pre-emptive time on it, but rather let the debate develop. Bearing in mind the view of the Leader of the House and the reality that if we want to have amendments accepted here approved by the Dáil we must complete our discussion of the Bill before the Dáil rises, nevertheless it would be better to sit additional days if necessary to have a full discussion because in the other House the Bill did not receive a full discussion on Committee Stage. Certain important sections were not considered on Committee Stage because of the way in which the Business in that House was ordered. It is important that we take enough time to discuss it.
