Seanad: Claiming that the Minister for Justice had deprived the Seanad of its right to consider adequately a vital piece of legislation, Margaret Cox (FF) said that if the House was not to be treated properly, it should be abolished.
Two Fianna Fáil members and a nominee of the Taoiseach criticised the way the House had been treated last Friday over the handling of emergency legislation to deal with a Supreme Court judgment on part of a 1935 law on child rape.
There were complaints on both sides of the chamber about the "guillotining" of the amending legislation and the failure to take amendments.
Mary White (FF) said that her party colleague, Ms Cox, had pleaded for her amendment to be considered. Her stance had subsequently been proven to be correct. Ms White said that when she had seen deputies departing following the adjournment of the Dáil, she had realised that the Seanad was just a rubber stamp. The Taoiseach and the Tánaiste should ensure that this disrespect would never be shown to the House again.
Maurice Hayes (Ind) said that he supported Ms White's remarks about the treatment of the House. "I think the Senate has been taken for granted and I don't think we should really accept that." The result had been that the real nub of the Bill had not been discussed satisfactorily.
Ms Cox said it had been clarified by the leader of the House (Mary O'Rourke) that no guillotine would be applied. This was an issue about the importance or otherwise of the Seanad. Members of the House had been elected to do a job and they were paid salaries by the taxpayers. On Friday last their right to legislate had been taken from them. She had it on record from an official in the Department of Justice that the Minister would not be accepting amendments.
Government whip Pat Moylan (FF) said he had no doubt that the President would not have signed the Criminal Law (Sexual) Offences Bill 2006 if she had thought it was unconstitutional. He did accept that "perhaps the Dáil should not have been adjourned until such time as the Seanad completed its deliberations on the Bill."
Acting Government leader John Dardis (PF) said he rejected claims that the Minister for Justice regarded the Upper House as a rubber stamp. Mr McDowell had engaged fully and comprehensively with the Seanad on every piece of legislation that he had introduced. The leader of the House, Ms O'Rourke, had in the circumstances given as much time as possible to the matter, bearing in mind that it had to go to the President for her signature.
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It would be interesting to see if the company that had been given the nursing homes charges repayment contract had submitted a lower tender price than other companies that had tendered previously, Fergal Browne (FG) said. "Because, if it does not, there's a serious question mark there," he added.
Mr Browne said that Minister of State Seán Power had stated the contract had been advertised. The initial procurement process had resulted in 11 expressions of interest and these had been short-listed to three. However, the process had been ended because the HSE considered the tenders were unsuitable for reasons that included value for money. There had been a readvertisement, and the Minister had said a contract had been given to a particular company. But no further information was available.
Mr Browne said there was a lot of uneasiness over the scraping of the original procedure. He would be pursuing the matter.