James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Graham. That concludes our opening round of presentations on behalf of our stakeholders. I thank them all for their very interesting and thought-provoking presentations and submissions. I will now move to the members. The way we operate our business is that each member is allowed a seven-minute slot. That seven-minute slot includes both questions and answers. A member can choose to deliver a soliloquy for six minutes and 30 seconds, and have very little time for answers, if he or she wishes. That is their mandate. They may, alternatively, choose to take their time and engage with each of our guest speakers over the course of seven minutes. That is how we run the business. The first member to indicate is Senator Ruane, who I will invite to contribute now.

For the information of members as to who will be coming up next, the order of the first opening three speakers, who we will take one at a time, is Senator Ruane, Deputy Pringle and Deputy Ó Ríordáin. I invite Senator Ruane to speak now and she has seven minutes.