Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

If Members sat down sensibly and did not engage in one-upmanship every time we try to introduce reform in the House, which has unfortunately become the norm, it would be more productive. We over-use some procedures and under-use others and we continue to make attempts to circumvent the rules. If we sat down sensibly to establish rules for a modern parliament, there is no reason we could not do so. The problem is that everyone is playing games all the time.

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