Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I want to raise the issue of the Social Welfare Law Reform and Pensions Bill 2006, which is partly the reason for the late sitting. The Bill which includes 50 sections and nine Schedules is quite long. As it was only published yesterday and Second Stage is being taken today, I recommend that to be fair to Opposition spokespersons, Second Stage should be taken on Thursday. While I know the Minister was on radio and did a good deal of work reorganising some of the various schemes, in fairness to Opposition spokespersons who do not have available to them the resources that are available to the Government in preparing for the debate, we would have a much more structured debate if Second Stage were taken on Thursday.

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