The Minister has indicated he is happy to-----

I wish to clarify something very briefly. I spoke about amendment No. 7 but it is actually amendment No. 8 that specifies matters with regard to the elected body. To be clear, it is amendments Nos. 6 and 8. Amendment No. 8 specifies that it must be an elected body. On the question of representation, the fact remains that there will be less student representation within many institutions under this legislation. There is a lack of union representation. When we talk about other representatives, the fact that they woul…

On a point of order-----

On a point of information, it was agreed that the time would be extended.

Sorry, this is-----

On a point of information-----

Excuse me. This is the point at which it arises.

A proposal was put to us------

------about whether we would grant a period of suspension of the House and we said we would do so on the understanding that the time would be extended.

Much has not been discussed, such as the incredible powers relating to land and assets. Considerable powers are being given-----

-----to the Minister in this regard and have not been discussed or debated. The next section-----

When we are asked to suspend the House-----

The point I am making now is that our good grace in suspending the House to allow a Minister to vote has been trampled on. We now have a situation where we cannot in good confidence allow a Minister to suspend-----

In this regard, I have to be clear. We were clearly asked this.

There will be multiple points at which Ministers will request a suspension and we will not be able to grant that in good faith-----

-----if it is not followed through with an extension of time as promised.

Not agreed.

I will be very brief. I am very glad to see this Bill passing Committee Stage with support. I probably have some concerns. I realise the Minister proposes to introduce his own legislation. This is such strong legislation. With regard to some of the language mentioned on negotiations, it is important that, given the power imbalance in many of these situations, we do not end up with anything whereby it may be perceived that persons can negotiate or waive their right to speak in relation to an incident. That is import…

This is a simple amendment placing a time obligation on companies with more than 50 employees within which they must establish internal reporting channels. This is a time-specific amendment and we reserve the right to bring further amendments on Report Stage on the question of timely restitution or timely response. Many whistleblowers have expressed concern that there are times specified for the commencement of an investigation, but not for the period of time within which resolution or a response is to be given or …

We should be seeking to have the most ambitious interpretation possible. It is a pity for us to seek derogation in any area. I know there has already been discussion about concerns with other articles of the directive and there will be further discussion later. We will press the amendment. The Minister has given his reasons but for those waiting for very long time and for the kind of culture shift that we want to see happen, time is really important. We hope that even on the back of this legislation happening, a st…