Before the meeting commences I should like to make an observation or a marker. At the first meeting of the Committee it was agreed, and it was recorded in the Official Report, that amendments should be in by 26th January, 1977. It was stated by Deputy O'Malley that one week before the second meeting should be sufficient but the amendments were not in on 26th January or one week before this meeting. I must say that I found the general tenure of the amendments constructive.
Procedure
Standing Orders of the House stipulate that amendments must be in 48 hours before the date on which the Bill they relate to is to be debated and I do not think this Committee have any power to overrule that. I have found frequently that amendments were submitted at shorter notice. When I said 26th January I assumed the meeting would go ahead near to that date and I did not anticipate that I would have to spend all last month engaged to a great extent on the Bill we are at present debating. For example, if one looks at today's Order Paper one will find that the Minister for Labour, as late as last night, put in floods of amendments to be debated on Committee Stage of Bills he is concerned with. A number of the amendments he put in—they only reached Deputy Gene Fitzgerald yesterday—are longer than the parts of the Bill they are intended to amend. I do not see much point in the Minister's observations.
We have noted both comments and we should now get down to business.