Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

Since the general election last year, we have had the poorest legislative performance by any Government since the foundation of the State. The lowest number of Bills have been put through the Dáil. In the course of 24 hours, we have the usual exercise by the Government where it attempts to rush Bills through at the last minute. The Intoxicating Liquor Bill was passed the other night when only seven out of 56 Committee Stage amendments were debated and there was no Report Stage debate. The Dublin Transport Authority Bill was passed with only 15 out of 108 Report Stage amendments debated.

Many of the amendments on the Intoxicating Liquor Bill were tabled by the Government. Our experience in this House shows us repeatedly that where the Government runs amendments through and guillotines the legislation, we end up with a problem being discovered in the courts with the legislation. This ends up with amending legislation having to be introduced.

The Central Statistics Office has just released the latest inflation figures which are back up to 5%.

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