Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

To me, it is a more logical way of working. We should have a legislative day but the politics of it do not allow for that because people want the argy-bargy every day. Deputy Tóibín is looking at me. People want Leaders' Questions and the Order of Business. In a previous Government, back when I was a backbench Deputy in the late 1990s, we did a legislative day on a Friday. It was civilised. We got legislation through more expeditiously and in a better way. People want to be in their constituencies on a Thursday and so we get into this Tuesday to Thursday thing. I do not think it can be done in two and a half days, if I am honest. That is my view. It is a minority view but I genuinely do not believe we can do the work of the national Legislature in two and a half or three days. Some might say it is more than that as there are committees. I am not saying this in a disparaging way. I understand there is committee work and so on. It is a fundamental challenge that we have to be everywhere. What Covid taught me as a politician, for the first year and a bit, is that we were almost exclusively focused on policy. We got online calls and emails but the Friday nights were free and we were not at functions on Saturday nights. It was quite an interesting year and a half for politicians.