Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

On a point of order, the motion that was submitted by the Government was a motion tabled at short notice. The Standing Order dealing with motions requires that they be submitted four days before they are taken in this House. The Government's motion was tabled three minutes before 5 p.m. yesterday. Discretion was allowed to the Government to include the short-notice motion but discretion has not been given to the Opposition to amend it. I tabled an amendment to the Government's motion at 2.15 p.m. today but it has been rejected. Therefore, we cannot vote on it and we are being forced into either endorsing the Government's policy or opposing an exit from the programme. We reject that choice. Some of us will have to abstain from what is a charade.

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