Bacik refuses to vote against stag hunt Bill

SEANAD REPORT:LABOUR'S IVANA Bacik told the House that she could not vote against the Wildlife (Amendment) Bill. Ms Bacik said she had a long record on the stag hunting issue. She had worked with groups opposed to it for some years.

She said she found the tactics of the Rise! lobby group unacceptable. It had engaged in scaremongering and had whipped up a certain reaction to the Bill which she thought was unwarranted.

Seanad deputy leader Dan Boyle (Green) said he would like to see other legislation dealing with blood sports. However, he thought it was becoming more unlikely that this would happen.

Speaking in the debate on the Bill to ban stag hunting, he said: “Getting this type of agreement in a programme for government has been difficult enough. Listening to the performance of both main Opposition parties, it would seem to me that further progress in this area is nigh on impossible.”

The second stage of the Bill was passed by 30 votes to 18 with Ms Bacik abstaining and Dominic Hannigan not voting. He was paired.

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Eugene Regan (FG) asked if the Garda Síochána was following up on a complaint relating to Senator Ivor Callely’s expenses. A Sunday newspaper had reported that the complaint had been made to Clontarf Garda station in Dublin.

When Cathaoirleach Pat Moylan sought to dissuade Mr Regan from proceeding further, the Fine Gael justice spokesman argued that he was entitled to put a question to the Minister for Justice, through the leader of the House, as to whether or not the Garda was following up on the complaint.

Seanad leader Donie Cassidy said that, as they all knew, the House could not direct the Garda.

Mr Regan said he wanted to know that there had been no political interference in the matter.

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The Health (Amendment) (Number 2) Bill 2010, which provides for a 50 cent prescription charge for medical card holders, was passed by 29 votes to 19.

Minister for Health Mary Harney said the “modest” fee would be charged in respect of prescribed medication items dispensed by community pharmacy contractors. The charge was so low because “we’re starting something new . . . and we want to keep it under constant review”.

There were over 1.7 million medical card holders, of whom just on 116,000 had doctor-only cards. Everyone with a long-term illness card was exempted from the charge, as were children in care and people on methadone.

She would be happy to consider further exclusions, if suggested.

The maximum monthly payment of €10 per family would arise only where a family received 20 items or more in a month. It was calculated that the charges would yield €24 million in a full year.

Fine Gael, Labour and Independents Shane Ross, Rónán Mullen and David Norris voted against the measure.