Blank Thursday schedule
Senator Black lamented the death of Eamonn Campbell, then criticised the Government for leaving Thursdays blank on the upcoming schedule and delaying the Public Health (Alcohol) Bill.
I send my condolences to the family of Eamonn Campbell, who was a fantastic man and musician. He was a charismatic and wonderful personality.
He will be sadly missed in the music industry in Ireland and also by me.
I wish to raise a point about the schedule of the House. Yesterday we received the agenda for next week and, for the second time in a month, Thursday has been left blank. Not a single debate or motion is listed. We are supposed to sit on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and it is not good enough just to cancel one of the days.
Comment on this
We are here to do a job - to introduce and scrutinise legislation - so why has another day been left blank? Many Senators have Private Members' Bills waiting to go, just waiting on a slot. We have very limited chances to introduce legislation and, again, when time is tight, it is not good enough that days on schedules are left blank. I know I am harping on about this, and forgive me for doing so, but from my perspective, the reality is that we do not know when the Public Health (Alcohol) Bill will come back before the House. I thought it was coming back this week, I thought it was coming back last week and now I do not know when it is coming back. It has been over a year since it was last debated. During that time more than 1,000 people have died from alcohol-related issues. I again apologise for harping on about this but I go to funerals weekly and it is really upsetting that we cannot get this legislation back in here and sort it out once and for all. We need to ask the Minister for Health to update the House on the progress of this Bill.