On Friday last, the Government rejected the amended Scrap and Precious Metal Bill 2013 put forward by Independent deputy Mattie McGrath. The South tipp TD referred to it as ‘a disturbing degree of willingness on the Government’s part to dis-incentivise opposition TDs from initiating proposed legislation’.

Deputy McGrath was speaking after having engaged in a furious debate in the Dáil on Friday with  who was acting as the nominated spokesperson for the Minister for Justice.

Deputy McGrath said he left Government spokesperson, Pascal Donohue, Minister for Europe, in no doubt about how angry he was in the face of its ‘patronising rejection of his Bill’ which he says was ‘an important attempt to introduce industry specific law and a more targeted approach to what clearly remains a vastly underestimated problem in our society’.

Deputy McGrath says he is aware the Bill has flaws, but insists that amendments could have been made ‘or it could have been brought before a Committee to give it the critical analysis that it warrants’.

Concluding, he said the real losers in this case are not himself or his colleagues who spoke in favour of the Bill, but rather ‘the many homes, families, businesses and communities that will continue to see the theft of their scrap or precious metal passed or sold on in what is essentially a protected environment for the criminal’.