Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)

I echo the comments of the previous two speakers. Normally, the Government proposes a Bill and the Opposition puts forward amendments. However, in the past few days we have received amendments from the Minister and have received notice that the Minister intends amending his amendments to his proposed legislation.

Over the past few days, my fax machine has been overheating as a result of the Minister's amendments. Like others, I have not even had a chance to count those amendments, let alone read them in detail. This makes a mockery of the parliamentary process. There should be a pause for reflection so that we can all come to grips with the proposed amendments. It is at best infuriating and at worst impossible to deal with the complexity of the amendments before us.

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