This meeting is being convened to consider the National Oil Reserves Agency Bill 2006. I welcome the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resource, Deputy Noel Dempsey, and his officials to the meeting.
I suggest we continue until consideration of the Bill has been completed. Some members have indicated that we should suspend the sitting for the entire period of the Order of Business and resume immediately afterwards. Is that what the members request?
Will we suspend for Leaders' Questions at 4.15 p.m.?
Is it agreed that the sitting be suspended from 4.15 p.m. until the end of the Order of Business, but that we conclude Committee Stage tonight?
We will try.
It may be late.
Is that agreed? Agreed.
I ask members to be brief. A number of amendments are related and we should try to deal with them as quickly as possible.
I will take the Chairman's advice. However, on a point of order, Committee Stage is a fundamental and very important stage of the legislation and there should be no move to truncate the debate. It would be a serious erosion of the procedure and in violation of the tradition of the House.
I am merely requesting, in the interests of brevity, that members should try to make their point in a shorter rather than a longer period.
I hope the Chairman does not want to go down that road at this early stage.
