Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)

There is, of course, as the Fine Gael motion recognises, no necessary connection between those two provisions. A group made up of representatives of three parties and others should not be given precedence over a single party that is larger than any one of those three smaller parties. However, that issue has nothing whatsoever to do with the question of the Taoiseach taking answers in this House. The fact that a Government with sufficient votes to have its own way anyway sought to create a linkage so as to share responsibility for the achievement of its desire to reduce the Taoiseach's exposure does not make my party co-author of the amendments introduced by the Government in October 2002.

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