Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

The amendment has been ruled out of order. On Second Stage yesterday Senator Browne, untypically of him, quite unfairly asserted that my parliamentary colleagues, Deputy McGuinness and Deputy Nolan, given their membership of the Joint Committee on Finance and the Public Service, had it in their power to put down an amendment to the Finance Bill which would have been accepted by me. That is without any foundation or truth. The fact that this charge or assertion was made speaks more about the issue than, perhaps, the case itself. It clearly has a local political flavour that is being indulged by the two Fine Gael Senators.