Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

I oppose the proposal for the reason we have set out so many times previously, namely, the entirely unnecessary guillotining of the time available for discussing the Bill. To avoid having to stand on my feet later, I note that the Government will resort to the guillotine on no fewer than three occasions this week. None of the measures is urgent and there is no imperative in terms of timing. The arrangement is purely for the convenience of Ministers. The time available for Deputies from this side of the House to contribute to the debate has been abridged, with the time available to the main speakers cut from 20 minutes to 15. The impact of a similar arrangement last week was that some colleagues who were making their maiden speeches had three minutes in which to do so. It is entirely unnecessary. While the Bill may grind to its natural conclusion by 7 p.m., for the Government at the beginning of a term to resort to the regular use of the guillotine is entirely unsupportable in parliamentary terms. Whatever about a Government in its dying days needing to have legislation under its belt, there is no excuse for it in the opening days of the term of a new Government and Dáil. The abridgement is unjustified and I am opposing it for that reason.

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