Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)

This Bill was only published yesterday. It is a Bill to amend an Act passed by this House in 2004, which has yet to be commenced. The Ceann Comhairle has asked the Committee on Procedure and Privileges to rule that amendments to Bills be submitted four full days before a Bill is debated. I ask him to consider the actual bad practice of this Government. It is impossible for the House to comply with his wishes when it does not see a Bill until the day before it is debated.

The practice has been — with the Ceann Comhairle's encouragement — that there should be a period of ten working days between the publication of a Bill and the Second Stage debate in this House. If Members are to do their work properly, I ask the Ceann Comhairle to ensure that the Government abides by good practice in this House. Otherwise, we will find, time and time again, that Bills are rushed through the House and amendments are not debated. All too often, we have seen legislation end up in the courts. We had the absolute shambles of the Garda Síochána Bill. The Bill to be debated today is not particularly significant or complicated. However, it certainly deserves proper scrutiny and proper preparation and we are not getting that. I ask the Ceann Comhairle to deal with this problem.

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